The United Kingdom faces an enormous skills challenge. How do we ensure our residents are equipped with the skills they need to succeed and the skills our businesses need to grow?

In London, we are already coping with a rapidly growing population, significant skills gaps in key sectors (almost a quarter of vacancies in London are down to a lack of applicants with the right skills for the job), an employment rate that lags behind the rest of the UK, and one in five London families stuck in in-work poverty.