Skills England's Employability Skills Framework: What It Means and How to Evidence It
Key takeaways
On 5 October 2026, Skills England published the Employability Skills Framework: 13 core skills young people need for work, from planning and organising to digital literacy.
It does not replace Skills Builder, T Level or Foundation Apprenticeship frameworks. It maps across them to give schools, employers and young people one shared language.
AI is built into all 13 skills, with the focus on checking outputs and keeping human judgement.
The framework asks young people to recognise, articulate and evidence their skills. A shared language does not create evidence; that needs a record built up over years.
A skills passport is where that evidence lives. With globalbridge, learners track their achievements as they go, building a validated record they can share with employers.
What is the Employability Skills Framework?
The Employability Skills Framework is guidance from Skills England, published on 5 October 2026, that defines 13 core employability skills. For each skill it sets out what it looks like in a first job, how young people develop it, and how employers can spot, assess and grow it.
It builds on the UK Standard Skills Classification (SSC), which we covered when it was first announced (read our SSC article). Where the SSC is a national classification, this framework is the practical layer: a translation tool between education, young people and employers.
Why did Skills England create it?
Skills England created the framework because young people and employers struggle to recognise the same skills in each other. Young people often undervalue skills built through volunteering, caring, sport, hobbies and community activity. Employers say many candidates cannot explain how their experiences show work-ready skills, which makes recruiting for potential hard.
The framework's answer is a shared language. In Skills England's words, it supports young people to "recognise, articulate and evidence their skills".
What are the 13 employability skills?
The 13 employability skills in the framework are:
# | Skill | Skills England definition |
1 | Planning and organising | Managing time and tasks to get things done |
2 | Adapting | Adjusting to change, feedback or new situations |
3 | Working with others | Collaborating to achieve a shared outcome |
4 | Listening | Understanding information and perspectives from others |
5 | Speaking | Expressing ideas clearly to others |
6 | Leadership | Guiding or supporting others to achieve a goal |
7 | Learning and investigating | Finding out information and building understanding |
8 | Creating | Generating ideas and improving ways of doing things |
9 | Problem solving and decision making | Understanding issues and choosing appropriate actions |
10 | Numeracy | Using basic maths to understand and work with numbers |
11 | Digital literacy | Using digital tools effectively and safely (including AI) |
12 | Reading | Understanding written information |
13 | Writing | Communicating ideas clearly in written form |
Source: Skills England, Employability Skills Framework, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Each skill also includes guidance on what employers should look for, how to assess it at interview, how to develop it in a first job, and an AI view for both employers and young people.
Does it replace the Skills Builder Universal Framework?
No. Skills England is clear that the framework is not a new skills taxonomy and does not replace existing frameworks. Every skill is mapped to the frameworks schools and employers already use:
Skills Builder Universal Framework (for example, Listening maps to Communication: Listening)
FutureDotNow Essential Digital Skills Framework
Foundation Apprenticeship employability skills and behaviours
T Level and V Level transferable skills
NFER's Skills Imperative 2035
For schools already using Skills Builder, that means no fresh start: the work you have done maps straight across. Skills England has also said it will work with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education to align services, programmes and data with the framework.
How does the framework handle AI skills?
AI is not bolted on as a separate digital skill; it runs through all 13. Every skill has an employer view and a young-person view of what good AI use looks like. The common thread is simple: use AI tools to help, check what they produce, and own the final decision. For writing, that means using AI to support a draft but checking it is clear, accurate and appropriate. For problem solving, it means using AI to explore options while applying your own judgement.
The missing piece: evidence
A shared language is step one. But "good at working with others" on a CV tells an employer nothing on its own.
The framework knows this. Its guidance asks employers to listen for real examples: how a candidate approached a task step by step, what role they played in a group, what they did when something did not go to plan. Young people can only answer those questions well if someone captured the moments when they happened.
Look at where the framework says these skills are developed: Duke of Edinburgh's Award, team sports, student council, part-time work, caring responsibilities, enterprise projects, drama, coding clubs, volunteering. Most of it happens outside the classroom, and most of it is never recorded. That gap hits disadvantaged students hardest, because their part-time jobs and caring roles rarely appear on paper (why that matters).
The framework provides the vocabulary. What learners need alongside it is a skills passport: one place to gather evidence as it happens and carry it with them.
How can schools evidence employability skills?
Schools evidence employability skills by recording real experiences as they happen, linking each one to a named skill, and having staff or employers confirm it. globalbridge was built to do exactly that. It gives every learner from Year 4 to Year 13 a digital skills passport that grows as they track their achievements:
Capture every experience. Clubs, sport, volunteering, work experience, part-time jobs, employer encounters and enrichment. Students add their own on web, iOS or Android, and staff can add an experience for a whole group at once.
Link experiences to skills. Each experience is tagged to the Skills Builder Universal Framework, so "captain of the netball team" becomes evidence of leadership and teamwork. Skills England maps its 13 skills to Skills Builder, so that evidence already lines up with the new framework.
Reflect in the framework's language. Students write short reflections as they go, so by interview day they can talk through a real example instead of reaching for a generic answer.
Validate it. Staff and employer partners validate skills, turning self-report into evidence. British Airways and SUEZ explained why that matters to them in our recent webinar write-up.
Carry a skills passport. Every validated experience adds to the learner's skills passport, which they take into applications, interviews and conversations with employers.
Report across schools. School leaders, multi-academy trusts and local authorities see skills coverage across cohorts, alongside careers and enrichment reporting (see our DfE Enrichment Framework guide).
This is the same model behind our landmark partnership with Fife Council, which makes globalbridge available to every secondary school in Fife.
What does this mean for schools, employers and local authorities?
Schools and colleges can map their current skills programme to the 13 skills using the framework's own mapping tables, audit enrichment against the "developing this skill" lists, and start building each learner's skills passport from the earliest year groups. Because Skills England maps every skill to Skills Builder, evidence gathered against Skills Builder today already lines up with the new framework. It also strengthens the essential-skills focus in the new careers guidance.
Employers can write job adverts using the 13 skills, use the framework's interview prompts to assess potential, and validate the skills young people show during encounters and work experience directly in their skills passport. That builds an early-talent pipeline and measurable social value (how leading employers are doing it).
Local authorities and trusts gain one language across every school, ready for the planned alignment with DWP and DfE services, and earlier insight into the young people most at risk of becoming NEET (what schools can do).
Frequently asked questions
What is the Skills England Employability Skills Framework?
It is government guidance, published on 5 October 2026, that defines 13 core employability skills and explains how young people develop them and how employers can recognise, assess and grow them.
What are the 13 employability skills?
Planning and organising, adapting, working with others, listening, speaking, leadership, learning and investigating, creating, problem solving and decision making, numeracy, digital literacy, reading and writing.
Does the framework replace Skills Builder?
No. It maps each skill to the Skills Builder Universal Framework and other established frameworks, so existing programmes carry across.
Who is the framework for?
Employers, schools and colleges, training providers, careers advisers, skills planners and youth organisations, and the young people they support.
How does it include AI skills?
Each of the 13 skills has an AI view for employers and young people, focused on using AI tools responsibly, checking outputs and keeping human judgement.
How can schools evidence employability skills?
By recording real experiences as they happen, linking each to a named skill, adding student reflection, and having staff or employers validate it. A skills passport such as globalbridge turns that into a record learners build up and share with employers.
Turn the framework into evidence
The framework gives everyone the same words. globalbridge gives every learner a skills passport to prove it. Book a demo to see how your students' experiences map to the 13 employability skills, or find out more for schools and employers.
Want to track the Skills England framework directly in globalbridge? We're gauging interest from schools, trusts and employers now. Register your interest and we'll keep you posted.
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