Skip to main content
    TechSkills Logo
    Back
    Articles & Stories
    13 Jun 2024Policy & Research3 min read

    Tech Skills and the Conservative Party Manifesto

    Share

    LinkedInX

    The Conservative Party Manifesto was released on 11 June 2024. Here’s a few snippets for those of us concerned with tech and digital skills…..

    On facilitating training and skills at every stage of life, the manifesto references a continued focus on apprenticeships, including degree apprenticeship; the 21 Institutes of Technology; and the 9 specialist Catapults (which includes the Digital Catapult) to support innovation.

    Announcements include:

    • Creating 100,000 more apprenticeships in England every year.

    • Curbing the number of poor-quality university degrees. Courses that have excessive drop-out rates or leave students worse off than had they not gone to university will be prevented from recruiting students by the universities regulator.

    • Implementing the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, giving adults support to train, retrain and upskill flexibly throughout their working lives.

    • Expansion of adult skills programmes, such as Skills Bootcamps.

    In terms ofgiving young people the opportunities and skills they need, additional announcements include:

    • The Introduction of the Advanced British Standard for 16–19 year olds, building on the best of A levels and T levels, to address the divide between academic and technical education. This includes all young people learning more subjects, including English and Maths to the age of 18.

    • Offering bonuses of up to £30,000 over five years to new teachers in priority areas such as key STEM and technical subjects, with payments extended to eligible teachers in further education colleges.

    The importance ofdigital technology across the economy is referenced in a number of places throughout, for example:

    • UK leadership in global work on AI safety

    • An announcement to double digital and AI expertise in the civil service

    • UK leading the market for starting and growing a FinTech firm.

    • How the acceleration of disruptive technologies is changing the character of warfare.

    • An investment of £3.4 billion in new technology to transform the NHS for staff and for patients, including using AI to free up doctors’ and nurses’ time for frontline patient care.

    • A decision to implemented a new medtech pathway so that cost-effective medtech, including AI, is rapidly adopted throughout the NHS.

    • Making new tools such as facial recognition technology available to the police.

    • Ensuring the technology for the transition to net zero is made in the UK.

    • Prioritising cutting edge technology in agriculture.

    • Investing in new technology to achieve broadband targets.

    In other tech-related content, there are responses to concerns aboutprotecting children online, with the Online Safety Act making it a legal requirement for social media firms to protect children from illegal or harmful content online, and putting guidance on banning mobile phones in the school day on a statutory footing.

    If you’d like to keep up to date with policy analysis and updates from techUK, please register here.