UK to launch cross-government platform for civil service training and workforce planning
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The UK government is moving forward with plans to deliver a new cross-department learning platform that is expected to generate “the most accurate picture ever ” of skills availability across agencies.
The Cabinet Office has signed a four-year contract worth up to £7m (US$9m) with educational services firm Pearson.
The platform will bring together “for the first time” the core learning offer for all government employees, along with resources specific to individual departments and professions.
As well as creating a single ‘front door’ for all cross-government learning, the system will enable users to create a profile to capture their skills and track completed learning. This will be used to generate personalised training recommendations based on the skills they would like to develop further.
The data generated via the platform will also be used to map skills availability across government – with the aim of supporting managers to take a more strategic approach to planning and delivering recruitment, development and talent management initiatives.
Government Skills Campus
Plans for the ‘Government Skills Campus’ were outlined in the Civil Service People Plan 2024-2027, published in January and billed as “a long-term vision of capable leadership, efficiency and reformed recruitment”. The plan said the learning platform would enable the development of the first pan-civil service skills taxonomy to provide a consistent approach to defining and measuring skills. It would also support the introduction of skills passports to allow portability of skills between departments.
The Cabinet Office said that of the 68 suppliers that expressed an interest in providing the solution, five were shortlisted for panel review, with a final three selected to deliver product demonstrations.
Rebecca Birs, business change lead for the Cabinet Office, said: “Our ambition is to provide a great user experience for all government employees, empowering them to take charge of their own training and development needs and take a proactive approach to developing their own careers. In addition, the data we will be able to harness will enable the civil service to bring about a significant step change in its skills and workforce planning capabilities.
“Now that the contract has been awarded, we will be working with Pearson to design a roll-out plan that will see the new platform implemented across government over the next two years.”
About Sarah Wray
Sarah has over 15 years’ experience as a journalist with a specialism in the public sector and topics such as digitalisation and climate action. Sarah was formerly the editor of Cities Today and Smart Cities World, as well as a specialist video-based publication in the aerospace sector. She has also written for publications including Smart Cities Dive, Mobile Europe, Mobile World Live and Computer Weekly.
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