Matt Harvey recently attended the Employer Community: L&D Connect event hosted by City & Guilds in London, and the dominant theme throughout the session was both simple and unavoidable: organisations are actively moving from traditional role-based workforce models to skills-based systems.

The discussion, supported by employer case studies from organisations such as The Very Group and Pret A Manger, alongside policy and funding insight from Bryony Kingsland, was underpinned by the latest City & Guilds framework. That framework sets out a 10-point progression model for becoming a skills-based organisation, which I have attached for reference alongside this article.

For the RACHP sector (Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps), this is particularly significant. We are entering a period where the nature of technical work is changing faster than the systems we use to define, train and deploy skills. Net zero targets, refrigerant transitions, electrification of heat, and increasing system complexity are reshaping what “competence” actually means. Yet many of our workforce structures are still built around job titles, qualifications, and historical apprenticeship pathways rather than live, evolving skills.

The City & Guilds 10-point framework provides a structured way to understand what needs to change.

1. The first shift is leadership ownership of skills. The framework makes it clear that becoming a skills-based organisation begins at the top, not within HR or L&D teams. Skills must be treated as a core business capability, directly linked to productivity, resilience, and strategic direction. In practice, this means senior leaders actively shaping skills strategy in the same way they would financial or operational strategy. For RACHP, this is a critical shift. Skills are no longer just about training delivery; they are central to delivering decarbonisation outcomes and maintaining workforce capacity in a constrained labour market.
2. Closely linked to this is the second point: defining skills based on future demand rather than existing roles. Most organisations still start workforce planning by looking at current job structures and then adapting training around them. The framework challenges this entirely. Instead, organisations are encouraged to define the skills required to deliver future business outcomes and then build roles and pathways around those needs. In RACHP terms, this means starting from where the sector is heading — heat pumps, low-carbon systems, digital diagnostics, integrated building services — and working backwards to define capability requirements.
3. The third step focuses on building a clear skills baseline. Many organisations assume they understand their workforce capability, but in reality they are often working from incomplete or outdated data. Qualifications are commonly used as a proxy for skills, but they do not reflect actual capability, particularly in technical sectors where on-the-job learning plays a major role. In RACHP, this creates a hidden problem: we often underestimate the skills already within the workforce while simultaneously overestimating gaps. A proper baseline is essential to make informed decisions about training and deployment.
4. The fourth point is the shift from rigid roles to skills-based structuring. This is one of the most fundamental changes in the framework. Instead of designing work around fixed job titles, organisations begin to design work around skills clusters. This allows greater flexibility in how people are deployed and how work is delivered. For RACHP, this could mean engineers being deployed across refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump systems based on verified capability rather than job classification, improving responsiveness and utilisation.
5. The fifth step is the redesign of learning and training systems. The framework highlights the need to move away from purely compliance-driven or qualification-led training models towards more modular, skills-focused development. Training becomes more directly linked to capability gaps and business needs rather than predefined programmes. In a sector facing rapid technological change, this is particularly important. It allows organisations to upskill faster and respond more dynamically to emerging technical requirements.
6. The sixth point focuses on the transparency of skills within organisations. Employees need to understand not just what their current role is, but what skills they have, how those skills are recognised, and how they can progress. Without this transparency, internal mobility is limited and retention becomes more challenging. In RACHP, where career pathways are often unclear for early entrants and career changers, improving skills visibility is essential to sustaining long-term workforce growth.
7. The seventh step is skills-based mobility. This is where organisations begin to actively deploy people based on capability rather than fixed roles or tenure. It allows for more dynamic workforce deployment, particularly in sectors with variable demand. For RACHP, this is highly relevant given the project-based nature of much of the work and the regional variation in demand for installation and maintenance activity.
8. The eighth point addresses recognition and reward. The framework emphasises that skills development must translate into meaningful progression and reward if organisations want to sustain engagement. Without this link, investment in training does not translate into retention or motivation. In technical sectors, where experienced engineers are highly mobile, this becomes a critical retention lever.
9. The ninth step is integration across organisational systems. One of the most consistent challenges is that recruitment, learning, workforce planning, and progression systems often operate in isolation. The framework highlights the need for a connected system where skills data flows across all parts of the organisation. Without this integration, decisions are made in silos and workforce planning becomes reactive rather than strategic. For RACHP, this fragmentation is particularly evident across employers, training providers, and qualification routes.
10. The tenth and final point is the importance of starting small but starting now. The framework acknowledges that full transformation does not happen overnight, but also makes it clear that delay increases risk. Organisations that begin mapping skills, redesigning training approaches, and improving visibility now are significantly better positioned to adapt to future change.

What became clear at the L&D Connect event is that these ten steps are not abstract concepts. They are already being implemented by organisations that are beginning to see skills as a core operating system rather than a supporting function.

For the RACHP sector, the implications are significant. We are operating in a context where nearly every driver of demand — decarbonisation, electrification, regulation, and technology change — is accelerating. At the same time, workforce supply is constrained, and traditional training pathways are not scaling quickly enough to meet demand.

This is where a skills-based approach becomes not just beneficial, but necessary.

Keen to find out more or would you like to discuss this new system? Make sure to contact Matt here.