Policy paper

Pathways to priority occupations: supporting post-16 education and skills

A measure to monitor learners starting pathways - courses and subjects - that are more likely to lead to priority occupations in priority growth sectors.

• From: Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 25 June 2026

This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government

Applies to England

Documents

Pathways to priority occupations: a measure to support post-16 education

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Methodology for establishing the pathways to priority occupations measure

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Apprenticeship standards list

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T Levels occupational specialisms list

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Details

In the post-16 education and skills white paper, we committed to developing a new measure that monitors ‘increasing starts in priority courses’ mapped to the skills needs of:

• industrial strategy priority sectors
• construction
• health and social care

Our ambition is to increase the proportion of learners starting pathways - courses and subjects - that are more likely to:

• lead to these priority occupations in priority growth sectors
• reduce the number of vacancies attributed to skills shortages

Published 25 June 2026