15 August 2024
Key learnings from VocTech market activity – Q2 2024
The latest quarterly review from Ufi and Tyton Partners
Ufi Ventures and Tyton Partners reveal AI’s dual impact on job markets in our latest workforce development report
Our comprehensive quarterly analysis for Q2 of 2024 provides a nuanced look at the evolving market dynamics, including a look at challenges facing the UK’s new Labour government, along with strategic insights drawn from continental Europe and North America.
In the wake of the UK’s recent political shift, our analysis taps into the optimism of the economic and labour market outlook, despite ongoing challenges including skills shortages across various sectors including technology, healthcare, and the green economy. Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be a major focal point, with recent developments indicating both disruptive potential and emerging challenges in its application within educational and workforce settings.
Many familiar trends continue this quarter in a broadly more optimistic economic and labour market context. Skills shortages remain in the green economy, healthcare, education, construction and manufacturing, and technology sectors. AI continues to dominate headlines, with its effects on jobs – and evidence of usefulness – increasingly mixed. Several of the major LLM providers launched tools focused on education and learning, which may prove highly disruptive to stakeholders across the workforce training ecosystem over time.
To address the changing landscape, the number of collaborations between industry, government and educational institutions continues to rise, with philanthropy often being a key ingredient in the USA. Skills-based hiring is being deployed across private and public sectors, although evidence of whether or not this truly changes who is hired remains elusive. Immigration remains a perennial site for debate, notably when related to the role of international students in a country’s economy, workforce and culture.
In our Q2 2024 report we explore 4 key framing questions:
- In such a rapidly changing field with limited evidence, how do investors discern between organisations that add value to their customers with AI and those that do not?
- How can developers and users of AI models for educational purposes mitigate risks such as bias and misinformation that could arise from the use of AI in educational and workplace settings?
- What does the best version of Skills England look like now that it has been announced?
- When might we see new, shorter forms of degrees become acceptable in Europe?
Download the Q2 2024 report
Complete your details to be emailed a full copy of the report
Your details will be shared with the report authors, Tyton Partners and Ufi Ventures. We’ll also add you to the Ufi Ventures Bulletin list, a quarterly round-up containing the latest portfolio updates, investment news and market insights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
See here for our latest reports into EdTech investment.
* indicates required fields