How will we know Skills England is successful?

With the announcement of Whitehall insiders and career civil servants to lead the latest skills quango, Tom Bewick outlines performance metrics by which the body should be held accountable

You’ve probably had this conversation when starting a new role.

You sit down with your boss to discuss your “performance objectives”. Most companies issue managers with a standardised matrix that follows the SMART system — performance objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound.

Periodically, these objectives will be reviewed, for example, to assess your suitability to pass probation and to measure your ongoing performance in the role. In the workplace, you can get fired for not being SMART.

Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, has not published her Remit Letter to the Scottish businessman Phil Smith CBE — the incoming Chair of Skills England. Neither has the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, publicly stated how his government will judge success in this area.

Given that this is just the latest national government agency to tackle the country’s skills and productivity crisis, how will we know it is a marked improvement on all its prede…