The job is changing faster than anyone is being taught to do it.
Nearly half of what a role requires will look different within a few years, yet most people are never given the time, money or route to keep up. This page sets out how fast skills are moving, why training never arrives and who ends up paying for it.
of core job skills will change before people get the chance to learn them.
The work moved on. The training did not follow.
The share of core skills in a typical role expected to change within the next five years.
Workers who receive any employer-funded training in a given year. The rest are left to self-teach.
Average time a week people say they can realistically give to learning once work and life are accounted for.
People who say nobody has ever told them which skills their industry will actually reward next.
Four reasons the skills gap keeps growing.
Technology moves quicker than any curriculum
Tools change in months. Courses, qualifications and job descriptions take years to catch up, so people train for a version of the role that has already gone.
Training budgets go to the people already ahead
Development spend concentrates on senior and technical staff. The people whose roles are changing fastest are usually last in line.
Learning is expected on your own time
Upskilling happens after hours and out of pocket, which quietly rules out anyone with caring duties, a second job or no spare income.
Nobody says what to learn next
Without honest signals about where a field is heading, people guess. Effort goes into skills that were never going to be rewarded.
Keeping up is easy if someone is paying for it.
When learning is treated as a personal expense, the people with time and money stay current and everyone else falls behind doing the same job just as well.
- Frontline and shift workers72%Frontline and shift workers: 72%, say they have had no training that prepares them for how their role is changing
say they have had no training that prepares them for how their role is changing
- People without a degree66%People without a degree: 66%, say the courses that would move them forward are priced out of reach
say the courses that would move them forward are priced out of reach
- Parents and carers61%Parents and carers: 61%, say learning after hours is not realistic alongside everything else
say learning after hours is not realistic alongside everything else
- Workers over 4554%Workers over 45: 54%, say they are expected to keep up but never offered a route to do it
say they are expected to keep up but never offered a route to do it
A skills gap is not a knowledge problem. It is a shut door.
Average time people spend in the same band because the skills that unlock the next step were never made available to them.
The gap between people who get funded training and people who do not, measured across a decade of earnings.
Applications rejected for skills the person could learn in weeks if anyone offered them the chance.
Figures are drawn from global future of jobs and skills research, national workplace training statistics and our own community research across the Equity House network. Where sources disagree we quote the more conservative number. We update this page as new data lands.
We are making the next skill obvious and reachable, showing people what their field will reward and building free routes to learn it in the time they actually have.