Techskills backs SoftSkillingIt with new work-ready mark

Techskills has awarded Work Ready by Tech Industry Gold accreditation to SoftSkillingIt, making it the first non-technical, non-academic programme to receive the employer-led standard.

The move extends a scheme mainly used to assess degree apprenticeships and university programmes against industry requirements. According to Techskills, the decision reflects employer demand for stronger recognition of professional and human skills alongside technical expertise.

SoftSkillingIt is a fully online course that runs for one month and is designed to help learners develop workplace skills including critical thinking, problem solving, emotional intelligence, communication, teamwork, adaptability and resilience. The programme uses modules of about 15 minutes and is aimed at everyone from students and early-career professionals to managers, founders and senior leaders.

For employers, the accreditation is intended to provide an independent signal that a candidate's professional skills have been assessed against standards set by industry. While qualifications, certifications and portfolios can demonstrate technical knowledge, Techskills said human skills have been harder to measure at the hiring stage.

The announcement comes as employers place more weight on skills that are less easily automated. Techskills pointed to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, which found that 63% of surveyed employers saw skills gaps as the main barrier to transformation.

The shift has also been reflected in hiring practices that place more emphasis on skills than on formal credentials alone. LinkedIn's Skills on the Rise list, cited by Techskills, found that employers were increasingly prioritising skills over degrees, job titles and linear career paths, while highlighting the growing importance of communication and other people skills as technology becomes more embedded in work.

Employer standard

Tech Industry Gold is managed by Techskills and is used to accredit education and training for digital and technology careers. Programmes carrying the mark are assessed for their relevance to job readiness across technical, business, project and professional skills.

Its employer board includes companies and organisations from across the economy, including IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, Lloyds, BT, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Barclays, CGI, the BBC and NHS England. Techskills is recognised as a Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body for the accreditation of degrees.

Lorna Willis, Chief Executive Officer of Techskills, said the accreditation marked a broader interpretation of what industry considers essential for workplace success.

"We are incredibly proud to award SoftSkillingIt with Work Ready by Tech Industry Gold accredited status.

Tech Industry Gold has always stood for a simple but powerful belief: that education and training should be directly relevant to what industry actually needs. Today, we are expanding that belief in a way that feels both significant and overdue.

For the first time, Tech Industry Gold recognises a non-technical and non-academic programme. That is not a small decision. It reflects something we have heard consistently from employers: the candidates who stand out are not always those with the strongest technical grades. They are the ones who think clearly under pressure, communicate with confidence, collaborate effectively, adapt and lead when things change," Willis said.

Access to training

SoftSkillingIt said one aim of the programme is to widen access to professional development, which has often been available mainly through large employers or formal workplace training. The online format is intended to make that learning more widely available, including to people outside large corporate environments.

Julia Streets MBE, Chief Executive Officer of SoftSkillingIt, said the programme grew out of repeated concerns from businesses about technically strong staff lacking opportunities to develop professional skills.

"SoftSkillingIt was created from years of conversations advising startups, scaleups and global organisations. One challenge came up again and again: people are often technically brilliant, but haven't always had the opportunity to build the 'soft skills' needed to thrive professionally.

We have a very clear mission: to democratise access to soft skills learning, and achieving Work Ready by Tech Industry Gold accredited status is a huge step forward in that ambition. This means that anyone, anywhere can invest in their soft skills. Access to this learning no longer becomes the advantage of the few. Not everyone is in a position to be invited into training rooms, which are not always ideal learning environments for all. In this way, every learner, from school leavers to senior executives, can invest in developing these skills in business, as part of their studies, or independently. We are immensely proud to receive this prestigious accreditation," Streets said.

The programme is built around workplace scenarios and is aimed at both technical and non-technical roles. SoftSkillingIt also said its content on social media has been viewed more than 3.5 million times.

The accreditation signals a shift in how parts of the technology training market define work readiness, with professional judgement, communication and adaptability assessed alongside formal technical learning.