QS World Future Skills Index: UK Spotlight

UK performance overview

The UK places top in the world for two indicators - Skills Fit and Academic Readiness - and secures a perfect score. This suggests very strong higher education performance, and alignment with industry needs. However, the UK doesn’t feature in the top five for either Future of Work or Economic Transformation, where it comes in positions six and eight, respectively. At a macro level, the UK’s low-to-no growth over the past decade, the stagnating workforce productivity, declining real public and private investment and the young-age workforce population decline predicted from 2030 all contribute to low scores in the Economic Transformation indicator. As a consequence, the UK economy is likely to see self-reinforcing stagnation, driven by skills shortages and low R&D innovation unless action is taken

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UK performance in detail

Skills Fit

The UK stands out as a global leader in workforce skills, achieving a perfect score across Adaptive Life Long Skills, Human-Centred Leadership, and Entrepreneurial & Innovative Mindset. This exceptional performance highlights the nation’s ability to equip its workforce with the agility, creativity, and leadership qualities needed to thrive in a rapidly changing economy. The UK’s ability to integrate these skills across education and industry makes it a model for countries striving to prepare their workforce for future challenges. By maintaining this momentum and continuing to innovate, the UK ensures its graduates are not only competitive but also capable of driving progress on a global scale.

Future of Work

The UK is well-positioned, with strong demand from employers for AI, Digital, and Green skills. Part of the Rapid Industry Innovation Cluster, it must ensure talent supply meets demand by utilising and improving its already strong education system and industry collaboration. Expanding access to future-focused training and upskilling will be vital to keeping its workforce competitive and resilient.

Academic Readiness

The UK’s education system preparing students for working in future industries, achieving top scores in AI, Digital, and Green skills. With over 100 universities ranked in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, the UK sets the global benchmark for academic excellence and innovation. This strong foundation reflects its ability to align higher education with emerging economic demands. However, to maintain its leadership, the UK must evolve its curricula to stay ahead of global trends and further integrate sustainability, enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, and prioritise future-focused training

Economic Transformation

The UK’s economic transformation relies on growth, innovation, and workforce readiness, supported by its world-class higher education system. Strong in Future-Oriented Innovation and Sustainability, the UK is well-placed to lead in emerging industries. However, aligning economic capacity with long-term goals remains a challenge. Education institutions play a vital role in developing future-ready skills, but sustained investment in innovation and infrastructure is crucial. By addressing these gaps, the UK can strengthen its global leadership and maintain its competitive edge in the evolving economy.

Conclusion and analysis

The UK has long been recognised for its innovation and leadership in global business. Industries driving this growth include Financial Services, Technology, Healthcare, and Creative Arts. But economic stagnation could mean that the country falls behind and fails to capitalise on the future skills revolution. Economic Capacity performance is lower than the G7 average (55.8 compared to 70.7), and sustained investment in higher education and R&D is crucial if the UK is to remain a top performer.The demand for cutting-edge skills is evident in the UK, which scores highly on Future of Work indicators. With exceptional performance in areas such as AI, green skills, and lifelong learning, the UK workforce is positioned to remain competitive.

Our analysis and recommendations:

1. Leverage the strength of the higher education system to attract international talent to fill shortterm, high impact skills gaps within economies: The UK should seek to benefit from talent already in the country, including those on the Graduate Visa route, as well as leverage existing strong higher education performance to recruit new talent.
2. Support the ability of education and industry to integrate future skills, innovate and ensure talent supply meets demand with funding, lifelong learning and upskilling opportunities: The UK government should support universities to develop new courses co-designed with industry – those programmes should focus on all future skills such as Green, AI and Digital. The UK already places above peer countries in the Academic Readiness for AI, Digital and Green skills. This strength must be maintained.
3. Connect industry and higher education’s capacity for research innovation and foster partnerships to drive economic stimulus and industrial diversification: The UK can become an AI, digital and green industry powerhouse in partnership with its higher education sector. By fostering an innovative research environment and having an aligned curricula, UK higher education can become an engine that creates skills-ready entrepreneurs, who go on to create new jobs and drive economic growth.
4. Sustain investment in innovation and infrastructure to strengthen the UK’s competitive edge: It is important that the investment is sustained and that the UK’s excellent universities have the financial support to continue to innovate. The government should look beyond institutions ranked highly overall, and instead look at institutions with unique specialisms and foster innovation here too.