Degrees vs Skills: Why the UK’s Talent Strategy Needs a Rethink

By Chris McNamara, founder and CEO of Pathway CTM

For far too long, the UK has been under an illusion that a university degree is the golden ticket to career success. It’s a narrative that’s been instilled in young people, parents and teachers for decades — but in 2025, it just no longer holds up.

We’re in the middle of a full-blown talent crisis. Skills shortages are paralysing growth across almost every major sector — from construction to care, hospitality to digital — and yet we’re still sending the vast majority of post-16 students down a one-size-fits-all academic path. It’s not just outdated. It’s failing everyone.

The public is waking up. Data from a recent YouGov poll shows a steady decline in the number of Brits who believe university is the best way to prepare young people for the world of work. And they’re right to question it. The reality is that a degree, while still valuable for some jobs, no longer guarantees employment, nor does it leave students prepared with the practical skills many industries today demand.

Instead, employers are crying out for work-ready talent – young people with practical experience, technical skills and the kind of toughness you can’t learn in a lecture hall.

That’s where apprenticeships and skills-based training come in. But the system continues to view these routes as second-class. Not only is that elitist — it’s economically short-sighted.

Skills gaps are widening – fast

Take construction, for example. The Construction Industry Training Board states that the UK will need to hire at least 216,800 new employees this year alone to stay ahead of demand. With extensive infrastructure and housing schemes underway, including the government commitment to build 1.5 million homes by 2029 — that number is only set to rise.

A degree doesn’t build houses. Practical skills do. On-site experience, equipment handling and safety awareness are best learned on the job, in real environments, through training that blends hands-on learning with study. Yet construction firms are struggling to recruit, and this is because we’re still channelling most school-leavers into university courses that often bear no relevance to the modern labour market.

This imbalance is not limited to construction. It’s evident in health and social care, hospitality, logistics, manufacturing and even in tech. The result is sky-high vacancy rates, economic drag, and thousands of young people unsupported or underemployed.

A University degree is increasingly out of reach

Even for those who do want to go to university, the cost is becoming too much. Fees are set to rise to £9,535 by 2025/26. For a lot of households, particularly in the present cost-of-living crisis, that just isn’t doable.

This shuts out capable young people from poorer backgrounds, reinforces inequality and narrows the pool of talent that businesses can draw from. Meanwhile, apprenticeships offer an alternative – earn while you learn, no debt and a direct line into employment – but they are massively under-promoted and underfunded.

If we want to talk seriously about social mobility, this is the debate we want to have. But too many schools still treat apprenticeships as the fallback option — as something for those who “can’t” go to university, not a first choice for those who might want a route into high-value careers.

The stigma needs to end

Let’s be clear: skills-based routes are not just for trades. Today, apprenticeships are available in finance, law, digital marketing, cybersecurity — even aerospace engineering. They’re challenging, respected and on the rise. But we need to dispel the stigma that implies they’re somehow “lesser” than a university qualification.                                    

Young people and their parents have a right to know the whole picture. That includes the fact that many apprentices end up in jobs with higher earning potential, less debt and greater career progression than their graduate peers. It also includes being aware that many employers now care more about relevant real-life experience than qualifications.

Stop talking. start funding.

We can’t build a skills-based economy on good intentions alone. Vocational training remains woefully underinvested in. Of course, small businesses can access up to 100 per cent of training costs, and large employers pay into the Apprenticeship Levy, but total investment still lags behind, and providers are struggling to deliver quality programmes at scale.

Policymakers need to end the attitude of treating further education as the poor cousin of degree study. Fixing the talent shortage in the UK is serious business, and skills funding should not be viewed as an expense but as an investment for growth.

Invest in people, and the payoff in productivity, jobs and economic stability will follow.

The clock is ticking

The UK doesn’t just need more skilled individuals, it needs a complete mindset shift regarding what education and employability actually look like in the 21st century.

That means equal status — and equal investment — for academic and vocational pathways. It means schools being held to account for promoting a range of post-16 options, not just university. And it means employers stepping up to offer more placements, more apprenticeships and more visible support for non-graduates.

We’re at a crossroads. We can continue to hold onto the old notion that a degree is the only path to success — or we can embrace a future in which skills, not status, define our workforce. The choice should be obvious.