Business figures have urged the government to broaden its technical education reforms beyond qualifications alone, warning that the UK needs stronger recognition of vocational routes, entrepreneurship, and neurodivergent talent.
The comments follow Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s plans to expand technical education in England, including new routes for 14 year olds, apprenticeship support, additional college places, and youth employment hubs. The package includes an apprenticeship bursary worth up to £4,500, £287m for more than 22,000 additional college places, and almost 180 Youth Hubs designed to bring together education, employment, welfare, and health support. New technical pathways are expected to be introduced nationally from 2028.
Those measures were set out in Technical education push targets AI skills gap, which examined the government’s attempt to align youth training with future labour market demand.
Michelle Carson, chairwoman of executive search company Holmes Noble and founder of The Carson Holmes Foundation, said the government was right to recognise that technical qualifications had been underfunded and undervalued for decades.
“When a major announcement like this is made, it’s good to reflect, opposed to jumping in as soon as it’s made. To my mind, the Government is right to recognise that technical qualifications have been underfunded and undervalued for decades. Successive attempts to address the imbalance have often been overtaken by competing priorities, despite the clear need to strengthen vocational education and create more credible alternatives to traditional academic routes.
“That said, we should be careful not to create a false choice between academic and technical education. Both have a vital role to play. Academic pathways remain essential for many professions, including medicine, scientific research and a range of specialist disciplines, while technical qualifications provide equally valuable routes into highly skilled careers. The challenge has never been deciding which is more important; it has been ensuring both are properly recognised and valued.
“This announcement should prompt a broader conversation about how we identify and develop talent. For too long, our education system has expected too many young people to follow the same path, despite the fact they have different strengths, different ways of learning and different aspirations. We need education and careers guidance that is far more individualised, helping young people find the pathway where they are most likely to thrive rather than expecting everyone to fit the same model.
“This will be particularly important for the significant number of neurodivergent young people in our education system, many of whom remain unidentified or unsupported. Technical education can provide opportunities for young people whose strengths in problem-solving, creativity, practical thinking and innovation are not always recognised through conventional academic assessment. When we broaden the ways in which people can demonstrate their abilities, we strengthen not only individual lives but also our future workforce and economy.
“If this policy is to succeed, it must move beyond simply expanding technical qualifications. It should recognise that talent is expressed in many different ways and that young people will not all reach their potential through the same route. Britain has no shortage of talented people. The challenge is building an education system that recognises potential early, nurtures individual strengths and ensures everyone has the opportunity to succeed.”
Keith Griffiths, founder and chief executive of The Entrepreneur Festival, said the reform agenda should celebrate entrepreneurship as well as employment.
“If we are serious about reducing the number of young people being left behind, we need to celebrate entrepreneurship as much as employment.
Vocational training is important but so too is developing the skills needed to start, scale and exit a business successfully.
There is no part of the school curriculum dedicated to entrepreneurship but with the number of self-employed people growing (now over 4.5 million adults in the UK and around 10% of the workforce), there is a stronger case than ever to equip school leavers with the skills required to become successful founders.
Outside of the classroom, entrepreneurs should be sharing their knowledge, mentoring the next generation and showing young people that building a business is a legitimate, exciting and rewarding career path.
By sharing our experiences, the challenges we have overcome and the lessons we have learned, we can help young people see possibilities they may not have considered and give them the confidence to pursue their ambitions.
Creating stronger links between education and entrepreneurship should be about more than developing future employees – it should also be about inspiring future business builders, problem-solvers and innovators who can contribute to the growth of our economy.”
The comments point to a wider issue for the UK skills system. Technical education reform is often framed around routes into employment, but the economy also needs founders, freelancers, tradespeople, and self-employed specialists who can create work rather than only fill vacancies.
The rise of AI gives the debate extra force. Entry level roles in administration, customer service, research, marketing, finance, and technology are already being reshaped by automation. Young people entering the labour market will need technical capability, but also adaptability, communication, commercial awareness, judgement, and confidence to work with changing tools.
Employers have long criticised the gap between education and workplace readiness. Technical qualifications can help where they are linked to real employer demand, high quality placements, modern equipment, and clear progression routes. Poorly designed pathways, however, risk becoming lower status alternatives rather than genuinely valued routes into skilled work.
Neurodivergent inclusion adds another dimension. If technical education is designed around practical problem solving, project work, and varied assessment, it may help more young people demonstrate ability in ways traditional exams do not capture. That requires teacher training, early identification, support services, and employer engagement so that students are not simply moved into different routes without proper backing.
The entrepreneurship point also affects regional growth. Many local economies depend on small companies, sole traders, and independent employers. Teaching young people how businesses are started, financed, managed, and scaled could support self-employment and local enterprise, particularly in areas where large employers are limited.
The government’s reform package gives technical education greater prominence, but delivery will determine whether it changes outcomes. Colleges, schools, employers, local authorities, and support services will need to work together, and funding must be sustained beyond the initial announcement. A stronger skills system cannot be built by replacing one narrow pathway with another; it will need to recognise academic talent, technical talent, entrepreneurial ambition, and different ways of learning as part of the same economic agenda.
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