Ufi Christmas message 2024

Enabling better outcomes and access for all: a vision for lasting, systemic change

As we reach the end of each year I reflect on what has been achieved and look ahead at what is to come. However, 2024 marks the end of our current 5 Year Strategy Cycle, so I’ve been looking back a little further and thinking about the next five years and beyond for Ufi.

We’ve made great progress. As of the end of 2024, Ufi has supported over 250 organisations with more than £31m in grant funding to develop and adopt Vocational Technology. We have invested more than £6m into early-stage businesses through Ufi Ventures and developed strategic partnerships with nine organisations across the UK skills landscape to accelerate the pace of change. Most importantly, our work has positively impacted the lives of millions of adult learners across the UK, positively impacting access to learning across every stage of peoples' working lives, with a particular focus on learners, sectors and places which historically have not been well-served by mainstream provision.

I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the work it has taken to bring us to where we are today, and to thank all of the Ufi staff, our network of freelancers, the Ufi Board of Trustees, and our strategic partners for their dedication and hard work.

Building skills in a changing world

The pace of change is constant, and much has changed over the past five years for Ufi and the skills sector in the UK. Reassuringly, Ufi is no longer such a lone voice championing the importance of skills as the engine for our collective success, nor in our belief in the potential of technology as a catalyst for change. The beliefs we have always held are now echoed by leaders and organisations across the sector, amplified through the partnerships we have built, continuing to evolve and strengthen our collective impact.

And of course, learning technology has also changed hugely. Accelerated by the development of new technologies and the shift to increasingly digital approaches to learning as a result of the pandemic, much of the technology that just a few years ago would have been seen as niche and cutting-edge is now considered commonplace across learning environments. Generative AI, the ‘new kid on the block’ in 2022, has evolved to such a degree that the origins of early large language models are now resigned to history. Discussions have moved from awe and wonder to thinking more practically around the application and implications of such technologies and how we can harness them for good in the vocational space.

A great example of how new innovation in technology is having a direct and immediate impact on leaning is TeacherMatic. A previous recipient of Ufi grant funding in 2022 and acquired by edtech giant Avallain earlier this year, TeacherMatic is now used in over half of all UK colleges. Their AI-generated learning resources are saving teachers an average of 3.8 hours a week, reducing workload, improving teacher wellbeing, and allowing more time for individual learner support.

The potential for AI should not be underestimated, and we are now seeing its implementation – in some form or another - in the majority of grant applications we receive. We are also exploring the opportunities AI can bring to our own work across Ufi, from efficiencies in our processes to surfacing insights from the large data sets generated from our funding activities.

As this new technology is developed and deployed it is vital that we keep our focus on why and how AI is used, what it adds to the tool, and ultimately what it delivers for the learner. We know that technology alone will not bridge the skills challenges we face. By keeping our focus on learner needs and ensuring that the human is always at the heart of vocational technology, we can ensure that technology is used to its full potential.

Supporting an economy in transition: our VocTech Challenge programme

A practical demonstration of our commitment to building skills for our changing times is our ongoing VocTech Challenge programme, Skills for an Economy in Transition. Delivered in partnership with Learning and Work Institute, the £3m programme of funding and wider work includes place-based collaborations, evidence and insight into delivery, a new grant fund, and venture investment. Now a year into the programme it gives me great pleasure to see the partnership we have built, the progress we have made and the huge potential for systemic change that we are helping to drive forward.

Our Place-Based Collaborations across Hull, Belfast, Aberdeen and Newport are gathering pace. In Hull we are working with Hull College and Hey! Volunteering to create a suite of short courses which are responsive to the changing needs of learners and industry. The project will support local adults into learning and work through a volunteer programme, as well as supporting local arts and culture venues by providing over 8,000 volunteer shifts, building on the pride felt locally when Hull was named City of Culture in 2017. With 40 ‘micro-credentials’ courses planned for this project we are looking forward to seeing the impact this will have in the Hull area, and the potential for replicating the approach across more UK cities. I look forward to sharing our progress from Hull, and from our other placed-based collaborations as their projects develop.

Though our VocTech Challenge Grant Fund we are providing £1.5m of funding and support to six organisations tackling challenges focused on employer integration; pathways into and within work; and vocational language barriers – systemic barriers as highlighted in our VocTech Challenge White Paper. I hope you will join us in welcoming The Institute for the Future of Work; BE-ST; First Step Trust; Klik2Learn; FlashAcademy and Aposto and follow with interest as their projects develop.

Transforming how we recognise and reward learning and skills development

As the needs of learners, employers and industry change, there is an increasingly pressing need to develop new approaches to recognise and reward learning and skills development. At the recent edition of the Online Educa Berlin (OEB) Conference it was reassuring to hear so many practical experiences and successes in implementing digital badging and micro-credentials. These are not new concepts, with many people sharing Ufi’s belief that digital credentials more broadly will become a mainstream technology for recognising learning. However, research shows the UK is significantly behind other parts of the world when it comes to the policies and structures needed to support their adoption.

To help close this gap Ufi launched the Digital Badging Commission in early 2024, in partnership with the RSA. Co-chaired by Professor Sir Chris Husbands and I and supported by Commissioners from across industry and the skills sector, the commission is a UK first, aiming to broaden the understanding, development and adoption of digital badges by accrediting organisations and employers.

The initial landscape review and stakeholder workshops have highlighted the practical challenges but also the significant opportunities for digital badges and micro-credentials in the UK. I am looking forward to the publication of the Commission’s work towards the end of 2025 and hope that our collective recommendations will help to support change.

Building on strong foundations

Although the technology and skills requirements may change, our commitment to getting adults learning remains steadfast. By combining grant funding, strategic partnerships, venture investment, community building, advocacy and celebration we believe we can deliver transformative change in vocational learning. Standout examples from our past year include:

• Grant funding
  Through our VocTech Activate grant fund we offered £947,000 of grant funding to 16 early-stage projects in 2024, each developing new ideas for how technology can get adults learning. The next VocTech Activate grant window opens on Jan 6 2025. Try our Eligibility Checker and book a pre-application workshop now.
• Strategic Partnerships
  2024 saw the launch of our third cohort of our GoodTech Ventures work in partnership with Catch 22, supporting early-stage impact-led tech ventures to design, build and deploy game-changing digital technologies into social and public service delivery. Explore our current Strategic Partnerships.
• Venture investment
  We welcomed Greenworkx to our Ventures Portfolio in late 2024, helping close the green skills gap by equipping job seekers with the necessary skills and connecting them with employers offering well-paid, sustainable careers. They join our 18-strong Ventures portfolio.
  We have also launched our new investment fund, the Ufi Ventures Challenge Fund, supporting early-stage businesses building skills for an economy in transition.
• VocTech Community
  As our community continues to grow, we have sought to create new spaces and opportunities to share ideas and increase collaboration in the VocTech space. To this end we recently launched the VocTech Impact Network – an online space for our cohorts to connect with each other and with those across the wider industry to create even greater impact.
• Advocacy and celebration
  We continue to be a champion for skills for work and for the technology that can transform lives in supporting better access and better outcomes. We engage with industry to raise the profile of VocTech and are part of the Future Skills Coalition, supporting policy thinking.

In a continuation of the theme of advocacy and celebration we were also delighted to attend the 2024 Learning Technology Awards in London in last month. Ufi-supported projects shortlisted this year included CAPSLOCK, Data Literacy Academy, Klik2learn and Care Reality who all impressed the judges with the evidence of their impact on adult learning outcomes. Winners on the night included Hull College (winning an impressive two Gold awards), TeacherMatic (taking home a Gold award, see photo above), and Into Games (winning Silver). I would like to personally extend my congratulations to all of the finalists and winners this year.

I was also thrilled to be shortlisted for the Outstanding Leadership in Tech Award at the inaugural Tech Impact Awards, and was even more delighted that our strategic partners, FutureDotNow, won the award for Promoting Digital Skills.

Looking ahead: Ufi Strategy 2025 - 2030

So, now we look to the future – 2025 marks the start of our next five year strategy, and the end of my first decade with Ufi (!)

Publicly launched earlier this month, Ufi’s 2025 – 2030 strategy sets unapologetically bold objectives for the years ahead, as well as outlining the practical approaches and tools we will use to meet them.

In a world where our potential can be unlocked through the right skills, vocational technology is the key that opens doors of new opportunity, building a more inclusive, thriving future where everybody benefits.

Our programme of activities from 2025 - 2030 will continue to build on our successful grant funding and investment models, learning from the work we have funded and supporting the adoption and development of innovative technology that enables better outcomes and access for all. You can watch an introduction to our new strategy in the film below, or read the strategy publication in full.

Developing our new strategy involved deep reflection on past success, lessons learnt, current activity, and opportunities for the future – within our own organisation and across the sector. I would like to thank everyone who helped us to shape our future direction and look forward to working with you as part of the next chapter in Ufi’s story.

I hope you have a restful break and looking forward to seeing you recharged in 2025. There is still much work to be done.

Rebecca Garrod-Waters
CEO, Ufi VocTech Trust