What do the new post-16 Skills and National Curriculum Reform mean for the UK biotech talent pipeline?
In this blog, Dr Kate Barclay, Skills Strategy Consultant at BIA, explores how recent policy developments — including the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper and the National Curriculum & Assessment Review — alongside the Life Sciences Sector Plan, could reshape the talent pipeline. From stronger STEM foundations and digital/AI literacy in schools to clearer post-16 technical pathways and lifelong learning opportunities, these reforms offer a once-in-a-generation chance to prepare a workforce ready for the next wave of biotech innovation.
Combining the recently published Post-16 Education and Skills white paper and new National Curriculum & Assessment Review final report with UK Governments intent for skills through the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy and the Life Sciences Sector Plan presents a timely and comprehensive policy ecosystem with major implications for the innovative life sciences and biotech industry talent pipeline and workforce development.
In October 2025, the Post-16 White Paper sets out a renewed vision for England’s post-16 education and skills system, emphasising employer-designed technical routes, higher-level skills, a lifetime learning entitlement, and roles for the new coordinating body, Skills England. Post-16, simplification of the education and qualification landscape has to be good for the sector with fewer, clearer routes for 16-19 learners and stronger employer involvement in content aligned to industry need. For the industry, emphasis on qualifications aligned to occupational standards means better chance of new entrants having the relevant technical training and reduces complexity for recruiters. But our sector does not engage well with vocational routes, instead preferring well-understood academic pathways and for vocational routes to be well designed for the specific needs of the life sciences sector, industry must engage early.
The talent pool of learners aspiring to biotech and life sciences careers should benefit from clearer routes through technical qualifications post-16 and a stronger curriculum base at school and college educational levels, focusing on integration of STEM, digital and data skills. Renewed focus on lifelong learning provision means the current workforce should be able to up-skill or re-skill into emerging biotech domains such as synthetic biology, automation, AI and data analytics. However, individuals face transitional uncertainty with a constant change in a qualification landscape, provider variation, and lack of employer recognition of credentials, alongside the broader challenge of ensuring education reforms keep pace with industry needs.
In November 2025, the National Curriculum & Assessment Review final report was published, to which BIA contributed. This review argues for a more coherent, knowledge-rich curriculum from age 5 to 19, with stronger digital/AI literacy, broader STEM and vocational alignment, and better practical links to work. It continues to focus on science as a core subject, improving access to triple science and highlights the need for more practical skills in the classroom, critical problem solving and integration with digital literacy. Better structure in the math curriculum pre-16 means stronger numeracy, reasoning and data confidence. There are concerns of curriculum overload restricting time for deeper thinking, practical work and meaningful application, but a refined curriculum that prioritises these practices aligns with industry need. One of the review's key recommendations is a major shift in the computing subject landscape, replacing narrow ‘computing’ models to a much broader digital and AI literacy agenda. For our sector, this is very positive as emerging roles increasingly involve data analytics, automation, machine learning and AI skills.
Together, these form an important policy architecture and opportunity for innovative life sciences and biotech industry in linking school-age education reform with post-16 technical and higher education pathways to a sector growth strategy. The synergy of education and skills reform with industrial strategy and sector plan creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prioritise life sciences and digital skills across academic, technical and vocational curriculum. For biotech companies, this signals a future workforce with stronger numeracy, better practical science skills and foundational digital/AI literacy alongside greater support for workforce upskilling in areas such as automation, synthetic biology, AI and bioprocessing for our existing workforce.
