Becoming a skills-based organisation

In a recent City & Guilds Employer Community webinar, we discussed how organisations can become more skills-based, with panellists from Skills England, The Very Group and Pret A Manger.

From skills frameworks and internal mobility to apprenticeships, workforce planning and leadership development, our panel showed what a skills-based approach looks like in practice.

If you're short on time, we’ve summarised the key insights from the discussion in this article. You can also access the full recording and slides.

What does it mean to be a skills-based organisation?

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Every organisation is skills-based to some degree, so what’s different about this concept? The key principles of a skills-based organisation are:

• Prioritising skills over job titles. Instead of relying on role-based structures, the organisation focuses on what people can do and what they bring to the company.
• Skills-based hiring. Evaluating whether applicants have the core skills needed for a job, rather than specific qualifications or degrees.
• Joining up people and strategy. In a skills-based organisation, skills are at the centre of not just the organisation’s people strategy, but its whole business strategy.

The benefits of becoming more skills-based include:

• Broadening the talent pool.
• Making better use of the existing workforce.
• Increasing organisational agility.
• Improving productivity and driving growth.

For organisations that want to take a more skills-based approach without a radical restructure, we’re here to offer a more realistic and achievable way forward. Our practical guide outlines 10 manageable steps your organisation can take to embrace skills and still see the benefits.

Why a common skills language matters

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Ali Kirk, Senior Data Analyst at Skills England introduced the UK Standard Skills Classification (SSC). While skills are the foundation of our economy, we lack a shared, consistent way of describing skills in the UK. The purpose of the SSC is to address this gap.

Employers, educators and governments all define skills in different ways, leaving individuals to translate between those different perspectives.

This lack of shared language makes it harder to match people to jobs, harder to design training that reflects real demand and harder to respond quickly to changes in the economy.

Providing this missing common language, the SSC breaks down jobs into the skills they actually require and creates a shared structure that can be used across the system.

The SSC is ‘a standardised list of the skills, knowledge and tasks needed for UK occupations’. It connects job roles to the tasks they involve, the skills needed to carry them out, the knowledge that underpins them and the training that supports development.

Developed as the first UK-wide resource of its kind, it brings together:

• 3,300 occupational skills
• 22,000 tasks
• 5,000 knowledge areas
• 13 core transferable skills

Employers can use the SSC to:

• Analyse skills within their current workforce and identify future skills needs.
• Create a plan to address skills gaps, either through skills-based recruitment or by upskilling and reskilling existing employees.
• Inform strategic decisions and long-term workforce development plans.

How the UK Skills Explorer works

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Neil Bachelor, part of the University of Warwick team that developed the SSC, demonstrated the UK Skills Explorer tool, which is designed to make the SSC practical and easy to navigate.

The tool enables users to:

• Search for skills, knowledge areas and occupations.
• View related skills, tasks, knowledge, occupations and qualifications.
• Understand the proficiency levels for each skill.
• Build lists of multiple skills and compare them.
• Identify overlaps and gaps between roles or individuals. 

The Very Group – skills share

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Hayley Murray, Head of Talent & Development, shared how The Very Group has embedded skills across the entire employee lifecycle – from hiring through to performance and progression.

At the core of this approach is a clearly defined skills framework. As Hayley explained, ‘we have mapped out 10 to 20 skills for every single role… giving colleagues clarity on what “good” looks like and the skills they should be demonstrating’.

This framework underpins key people processes across the organisation, including:

• Hiring
• Learning
• Performance
• Career progression

In practice, skills are fully integrated into how people develop and perform in their roles, through:

• Linking skills and learning. The skills an individual needs to demonstrate are connected directly to LinkedIn Learning modules.
• Embedded values. All colleagues have technical and professional skills in their learning pathways but also the company values, which are broken down into skills.
• Performance focus. For the talent and development team, the focus on skills provides clarity for the hiring process, ensuring they’re bringing the right people into the business.

This approach is already delivering clear benefits for talent acquisition:

• Faster time to competence (within the first 12 weeks).
• Stronger, more targeted hiring decisions.
• Increased transparency for employees.

Looking ahead, The Very Group is continuing to build on this foundation with the launch of a ‘Next Role Explorer’, which will:

• Provide clearer visibility of career pathways.
• Keep employees engaged and retain top talent.
• Support internal mobility.
• Help colleagues align their current skills with future opportunities.

Pret A Manger – skills share

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Daksha Stancilas, Learning & Development Manager, shared how Pret A Manger is using skills to support structured yet flexible career progression. In the hospitality sector, ‘squiggly careers’ are common and Pret want their employees to know they can grow in all sorts of ways.

At Pret, clearly defined role pathways and structured skills development show employees how they can grow from entry-level roles into leadership and beyond.

Skills development is supported through a blended approach, aligned to the 70-20-10 model, with most of the growth happening through on-the-job learning. When employees have demonstrated their skills and are ready to step up into the next role, Pret encourages managers to have positive coaching conversations with those employees.

Apprenticeships also play a central role at Pret, helping employees build the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to progress, through apprenticeship programmes at levels 2, 3 and 4. Many employees that started as team members in Pret’s shops now work in support centre roles.

This approach is delivering strong outcomes:

• At least 80% of managers started as team members.
• Strong internal progression and retention.
• Clearer understanding of career pathways across the business.

Key challenges and considerations

Throughout the webinar, several common challenges emerged.

Building and maintaining skills frameworks

Defining skills is not a one-off activity. As Hayley from The Very Group highlighted, it requires ongoing input and alignment: ‘Taking people along the journey, clarifying skills with colleagues, communicating with stakeholders to get feedback is critical.’

Keeping skills relevant

With roles evolving quickly, organisations must regularly review and update their skills frameworks – embedding validation into everyday processes such as hiring and performance management.

Securing leadership buy-in

The importance of linking skills directly to business strategy is crucial. The most effective way to gain leadership buy-in is to:

• Identify skills gaps that impact business performance.
• Link skills to strategic priorities (e.g. AI, growth, innovation).
• Demonstrate measurable impact on outcomes and KPIs.

This ensures that organisations have the right people and the right skillset to deliver the business objectives.

Watch the webinar recording

Please note: The information above was correct as of May 2026 when the webinar was recorded.

How City & Guilds can support your journey to becoming more skills-based

Our guide, ‘Is it time to become a skills-based organisation?’, outlines 10 steps your company can take to embrace skills. Here’s how City & Guilds’ solutions align with some of those steps:

• Ensure skills are on the leadership agenda. We can empower your leaders and managers through consultancy, coaching, in-house training, qualifications and apprenticeships. Find out more about Leadership Development.
• Establish what skills you need today and tomorrow. Our expert L&D Consultants can help you align your workforce development initiatives with your organisation’s key objectives and design a training strategy to proactively address skills gaps. Explore our Training Consultancy service.
• Review your existing training offer. In a free, informal Skills Review, our Skills Specialists discuss your current training offer and provide tailored recommendations for your organisation, aligned to your goals and future skills needs. Book your free Skills Review.
• Recognise learning. With our Assured service, we can formally recognise employees’ training achievements through branded digital credentials, helping you create a culture where learning is valued and prioritised. We’ll also ensure that L&D teams get the recognition they deserve by quality assuring your programmes to demonstrate that they’re best in class. Learn more about Assured.