What Skills Do Employers Actually Look for in 2026?
Qualifications still matter in the labour market, but employers rarely recruit on qualifications alone. A candidate may have the academic or technical knowledge required for a role and still struggle to demonstrate that they can communicate effectively, solve problems, work with other people or adapt when circumstances change. At the same time, rapid technological development is altering the skills required within existing occupations rather than simply creating new ones.
The latest evidence from Skills England provides a particularly useful picture of this changing environment. Its 2026 Annual Skills Report says employers continue to value transferable capabilities, including communication, problem-solving, digital literacy and adaptability, alongside the technical expertise required for individual occupations. Employers are also looking for recruits who can work with others, engage confidently with customers, take initiative and demonstrate responsibility.
For learners, this raises an important question. If qualifications provide only part of the picture, what skills should education help people develop for the modern workplace?
Employers still need technical skills
Discussion about employability sometimes creates a false choice between technical knowledge and softer, transferable abilities. Employers need both. Technical requirements vary enormously between occupations. A construction business, software company, care provider and engineering manufacturer will naturally require different specialist capabilities.
Skills England’s new Sectoral Skills Needs Assessments examine demand across ten priority sectors and identify significant requirements for technical skills. Digital roles are particularly prevalent across sectors, while engineering occupations are important in areas including advanced manufacturing, clean energy and defence. Construction skills are also central to both construction itself and the expansion of clean energy infrastructure.
The scale of demand is significant. More than a quarter of job vacancies reported by employers are difficult to fill because of skills shortages, according to Skills England’s 2026 report. Qualifications, therefore, retain an important role because they can provide structured evidence that somebody has developed knowledge relevant to an occupation.
The growth of skills-based hiring should not be interpreted as employers abandoning qualifications. It is better understood as employers looking more closely at what sits behind them.
Communication remains one of the most valuable skills
The term “communication” appears repeatedly when employers discuss workplace capability. Almost every occupation requires people to exchange information with somebody else. The audience might be customers, colleagues, managers, suppliers, patients or members of the public. Good communication involves more than speaking confidently.
Employees need to listen, understand instructions, ask useful questions, explain information at an appropriate level and adapt their approach according to the situation. Written communication remains equally important, particularly as email, messaging platforms and collaborative digital tools have become embedded within working life.
The significance of communication can sometimes be underestimated because it is not associated with one particular occupation. That is precisely what makes it valuable. A programming language may be essential for a particular technology role but irrelevant elsewhere. The ability to explain a problem clearly can remain useful throughout a career.
Skills England’s latest work on employability reflects this distinction, identifying communication as one of the transferable capabilities employers consistently value in a changing labour market. For learners, communication should therefore be viewed as a skill to be developed deliberately rather than as something people either naturally possess or do not.
Problem-solving is becoming increasingly important
Work rarely follows a perfect set of instructions. Customers behave unexpectedly. Equipment fails. Deadlines move. Information is incomplete. A project encounters an obstacle nobody anticipated. Employers need people who can respond constructively. Problem-solving involves understanding what has happened, identifying possible responses, assessing the available information and making an appropriate decision.
Skills England’s analysis of priority occupations finds higher-than-average proficiency requirements in areas including problem-solving and decision-making, planning and organising, digital literacy, numeracy, learning and investigating. Education can provide valuable opportunities to develop these capabilities.
Research assignments require learners to identify and evaluate information. Projects involve planning. Assessments require knowledge to be applied rather than merely remembered. Independent learning presents situations in which students must decide how to overcome difficulties on their own. The workplace application may be different, but the underlying ability to approach an unfamiliar problem methodically can transfer remarkably well.
Digital literacy now extends beyond basic computer skills
The meaning of digital literacy is changing. Being comfortable with email, word processing and online research remains useful, but those capabilities increasingly represent a starting point rather than advanced digital competence.
Modern workplaces use cloud software, collaborative platforms, data systems, automation and increasingly artificial intelligence. Skills England says most workers are likely to require practical AI literacy, including the ability to use, verify and safely integrate AI tools, while a smaller proportion will require specialist technical AI skills. It also notes that employer requirements for AI-related roles are evolving particularly quickly.
This does not mean every employee needs to become an AI specialist. It does mean that digital confidence increasingly includes the ability to learn new tools. Someone who knows one piece of software perfectly but struggles whenever the system changes may eventually be less adaptable than someone who understands digital principles and is comfortable learning unfamiliar platforms.
This gives education an important role beyond teaching particular applications. Learners need opportunities to research online, evaluate information, use digital tools responsibly and adapt as technology changes. Distance learning can itself contribute to these abilities because learners become accustomed to navigating digital platforms, communicating remotely and managing information online.
Adaptability matters because jobs are changing
The skills required for a job today may not be identical to those required five years from now. Artificial intelligence provides an obvious example, but technological change is only one source of disruption. Regulation changes, industries evolve, businesses reorganise, and new customer expectations emerge.
Employees who can learn and adapt are consequently valuable. Skills England explicitly identifies adaptability as one of the transferable capabilities that employers value, while its 2026 assessment argues for a more responsive skills system that can keep pace with changing employer requirements.
Adaptability does not mean accepting every change without question. It means being able to understand new circumstances, develop additional knowledge and modify the way you work when necessary. This is where independent learning becomes relevant to employability. A qualification demonstrates what someone has learned at a particular point. The ability to continue learning determines how well that knowledge can evolve throughout a career.
For employers recruiting into rapidly changing industries, evidence that someone can acquire new skills may become almost as valuable as evidence of what they already know.
Employers want people who can work with others
Teamwork has appeared on CVs for so long that it can become almost meaningless as a phrase. In practice, effective collaboration involves several distinct abilities. Employees need to communicate reliably, respect different perspectives, contribute their own expertise, resolve disagreements and understand how their work affects colleagues.
Remote and hybrid working have added another dimension. Teams may now collaborate across offices, homes, countries and time zones, making clear communication and personal responsibility particularly important. Skills England’s 2026 report says employers are looking for work-ready recruits who can work well with others and demonstrate responsibility and accountability.
Those expectations apply beyond young people entering employment for the first time. An experienced employee moving into a new sector also needs to demonstrate that they can operate effectively within an unfamiliar team.
Adult learners may already have substantial evidence available from employment, volunteering, caring responsibilities, or community activities. The challenge is recognising those experiences as evidence of transferable capability rather than assuming skills exist only when formally taught.
Initiative and responsibility are difficult to teach but easy to recognise
Employers generally do not want to supervise every decision an employee makes. They want people who recognise what needs to be done, take appropriate action, and accept responsibility for their work.
These qualities can be difficult to demonstrate through qualifications alone. They become more visible through examples. A learner who completed a qualification alongside full-time employment can demonstrate organisation and persistence. Someone who independently researched a difficult assignment can discuss how they approached uncertainty. A student who identified a problem during a group project and helped resolve it demonstrates initiative.
Distance learning can create particularly useful examples because learners frequently need to manage their own progress. Our guide to what makes an effective online learner explores many of the same behaviours. Planning, self-discipline, communication and knowing when to ask for support are educational skills that can transfer directly into employment. The important step is recognising that connection.
Are soft skills becoming more important because of AI?
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence has prompted understandable questions about which human capabilities will remain valuable as more tasks become automated. The emerging picture is more nuanced than a simple competition between people and machines. Skills England’s 2026 report points towards employers valuing judgement, problem-solving, collaboration, digital fluency and responsible AI capabilities. It also suggests that human capabilities such as empathy, teamwork and resilience may become more important as some processes are automated. The implication is not that technical knowledge becomes less valuable.
Employees may increasingly need to combine technical and human abilities. A person using AI effectively still needs to judge whether its output is appropriate. Someone working with automated systems needs sufficient subject knowledge to recognise mistakes. Customer-facing employees may use technology to improve efficiency while remaining responsible for the quality of the human interaction. The distinction between technical and soft skills can therefore become artificial.
Modern employability increasingly depends upon combinations of abilities. ADLC has previously explored why soft skills matter more than ever in a digital economy, and the latest Skills England evidence strengthens that argument.
Do qualifications still matter?
Yes, but their purpose needs to be understood properly. Qualifications can provide evidence of knowledge, achievement and the ability to reach an established standard. In some occupations, particular qualifications are mandatory. They can also help employers compare candidates. What they cannot do is communicate everything that somebody might contribute to a workplace.
Two applicants with identical qualifications can differ considerably in communication, initiative, experience, adaptability and confidence. Recruitment processes exist partly because employers need to understand those differences. This is why debates about whether employers value qualifications or skills can be misleading.
Employers often need qualifications and skills. For learners, the strongest position is to develop credible knowledge and become capable of explaining how that knowledge has been applied. Our recent examination of whether employers respect distance learning qualifications reached a similar conclusion. The delivery method matters less than whether the qualification is credible, relevant and supported by evidence that the candidate can perform effectively.
How can learners demonstrate employability skills?
Possessing a skill and demonstrating it during recruitment are different things. Writing “excellent communication skills” on a CV provides little evidence because almost anyone can make the same claim. Examples are stronger. A candidate might explain how they presented complex information to a customer, coordinated colleagues during a project or dealt with an unexpected problem while working towards a deadline.
Education provides examples, too. Assignments can demonstrate research and written communication. Group activities can provide evidence of collaboration. Independent projects show planning and problem-solving. Completing a course while managing other commitments can demonstrate organisation and resilience. Learners should therefore think about their education in terms of evidence as well as qualifications.
Keep records of substantial projects where appropriate. Notice situations in which you overcame difficulties. Think about what an assignment requires beyond the subject knowledge itself. This becomes particularly important for people changing careers. A midlife learner may lack direct experience in the new occupation but possess years of transferable skills from another sector. Combining those abilities with targeted education can create a compelling employment proposition.
What should education providers take from the latest evidence?
The latest labour-market evidence reinforces the importance of connecting education with the realities of employment. Skills England’s 2026 Annual Skills Report argues for a more flexible, employer-led and evidence-driven skills system, with training better aligned to changing workforce requirements. Its Sectoral Skills Needs Assessments are intended to provide an evolving picture of demand across priority sectors. That has implications for education providers.
Preparing learners for employment cannot consist solely of delivering curriculum content and expecting employability to develop automatically. Course design can encourage independent thought, problem-solving, communication and responsible use of technology. Assessment can require learners to apply knowledge rather than reproduce it. Tutor feedback can help students recognise abilities they may later need to articulate to employers. Distance learning has particular opportunities here. A well-designed course can foster independence without leaving learners unsupported, creating an environment where people learn to manage their own progress while still receiving appropriate guidance.
That balance mirrors an important workplace expectation: employees should be able to act independently while recognising when collaboration or assistance is required.
Employability in 2026 is about combinations of skills
There is no single skill that guarantees somebody a job. The modern labour market requires different combinations according to occupation, sector and level of responsibility. Technical knowledge remains essential. Digital capability is becoming more important across a growing range of jobs. Communication, problem-solving, teamwork and adaptability remain valuable precisely because they transfer between roles and industries.
AI adds another layer rather than replacing the others. Employees increasingly need sufficient digital understanding to use new tools responsibly, sufficient subject knowledge to judge their output, and sufficient human capability to work effectively with colleagues and customers.
For learners, the message is encouraging. Employability is not determined entirely by the qualifications written on a certificate, nor by possessing a perfect employment history. Skills can be developed through education, work and experience throughout life.
The strongest preparation for the labour market therefore combines credible learning with the ability to communicate what that learning has enabled someone to do. In 2026, employers are not simply asking what candidates know. They increasingly want to know what candidates can do with it.