techskills: Reflecting on 2025 and Building What Comes Next
techskills: Reflecting on 2025 and Building What Comes Next
Setting the direction: A message from our CEO
Lorna Willis
As we begin a new year, it feels right to pause and reflect, not just on what we’ve delivered, but on what it represents for the learners, providers and employers who make up the techskills community.
Across the UK, our accredited universities, apprenticeship providers and training organisations continue to do the hard work of developing the digital and technical skills our economy depends on. They are educating the software engineers, data specialists, cybersecurity professionals and digital leaders who will shape the UK’s future. In a sector facing continuous policy change, funding pressures and rapid technological change, that commitment matters more than ever.
Against this backdrop, 2025 was a year of transformation for techskills. We saw continued growth in our accredited network, deeper engagement from industry, and expanding enrichment opportunities that brought real-world insight into the learner experience.
techskills remains focused on building clear, credible pathways that connect learning with industry. We know that accreditation, enrichment and employer engagement are not ‘nice to haves’, they are essential to ensuring learners are genuinely work ready, and that providers are supported to deliver high-quality, future-focused provision.
As we look ahead, collaboration will be more important than ever. techskills will continue to play its role, convening, supporting and championing the organisations that are building the UK’s digital talent pipeline.
2025, techskills at a glance: Growth and impact
Everything we achieved in 2025 was made possible by partnership between providers, employers, learners and the wider techskills community.
In theacademic year of 24/25 techskills delivered155 enrichment activities involving107 employer partners, bringing industry insight directly into the learner experience.104 bespoke enrichments were delivered, with the largest proportion focused onindustry insight talks andplatform-led content
In 2024/25, enrichment activity formed part of the wider learner experience across the community, with a totallearner population of 4,611 across Tech Industry Gold accredited programmes.
Learners gained exposure to real employers, emerging technologies, and diverse career pathways helping them to connect knowledge to practice, and see where their skills can take them
Enrichment remains a defining pillar of the Tech Industry Gold accreditation, because learning is most powerful, when it is informed by the very industry learners are preparing to enter.Strengthening Governance and Industry Expertise
Our governance and leadership continued to strengthen in 2025, ensuring techskills remains industry-led and future-facing.
Thetechskills Employer Advisory Board grew to32 members, bringing together expertise from across employers, education, the wider tech ecosystem and across various sectors.
This diversity of insight ensures our standards remain robust, relevant, and reflective of the skills employers truly need.
In 2026, we aim to amplify the collective voice of our Employer Advisory board through proactive advocacy, driving policy influence and championing inclusive pathways into tech careers.**Accreditation with momentum **
Confidence in Tech Industry Gold continues to grow, with the figures telling a powerful story, reflecting Tech Industry Gold’s position as a trusted benchmark of quality and relevance.
- 32 learning providers are now accredited with Tech Industry Gold
- 55 programmes are accredited across the network
Momentum has accelerated year on year:
- Total number of accredited programmes increased from 64 to 69, representing an almost 8% year-on-year growth
- Between 2022 and 2025, the number of new accreditations added each year rose and saw a 167% increase**Responding to what industry needs next **
In 2025, techskills supported programmes aligned to some of the most critical growth areas for the UK economy, including:
- FinTech
- Health Informatics
These programmes reflect employer demand and the growing integration of technology across sectors.**Breaking new ground **
2025 was marked by important firsts that demonstrate the growing reach and ambition of Tech Industry Gold:
- The University of Salford became the first UK university to achieve Tech Industry Gold accreditation for a BSc Business Management programme, demonstrating how business education can meaningfully embed technology and workplace readiness
- Swansea University became the first university in Wales to achieve Tech Industry Gold accreditation, and the first to be recognised for a Health Informatics Master’s degree
techskills also celebrated pioneering achievement in theWork Ready by Tech Industry Gold pathway, our newest accreditation designed to recognise shorter, practical, and work-focused learning that equips learners with the skills employers tell us matter most.
We also launched and expanded thetechskills Learner platform, enabling more learners to accessTech Industry Gold digital credentials andemployer connections.
These milestones represent progress not just for individual institutions, but for the future of industry-aligned education across the UK. techskills, and Tech Industry Gold, is expanding not only in scale but in the types of learning journeys it recognises, ensuring a wider spectrum of learners can benefit from high-quality, industry recognised accreditations.**Building on Momentum: What Comes Next **
Final word from Lorna Willis
2025 has been a year of two halves for me: immense pride in what we’ve built, and deep frustration at the fragmented environment we work in. But that frustration fuels our determination.
As we enter the year ahead, our focus is clear:
- We will deepen and expand our Tech Industry Gold product offer to reach more learners and employers, whilst responding to the growing need for reskilling and upskilling in the workplace.
- We will play an active role in shaping the Skills England agenda, ensuring policy ambition translates in practical pathways and real outcomes.
- By strengthening partnerships across industry, training and academia, enhancing our data and insight, and championing simplicity in a complex system, we will continue to do what we do best: connect employers, educators and learners to build a stronger, smarter skills ecosystem.
In a policy landscape that too often drifts, techskills will remain a constant: the connector, the translator, and the standard bearer the system so badly needs. We’ll keep turning ambition into delivery and complexity into something people can actually use.
Lorna Willis
Chief Executive Officer
