International Skills Mark - Global Skill Development

About Us

At ISM we are all about making sure that people can get jobs and build aspirational careers, attracting investment from their companies and their nations. We work with governments to get the policies right, regulators to get the controls right, firms to build the right commercial models, and with digital service providers which make it all seem simpler. Our partners and associates are from the aligned backgrounds of Technical and Vocational Education and Training, General Education, Impact investment and commercial service delivery. We have experience and empathy with technicians who are held to account for delivering tangible products, through to senior managers and policy-makers who are under pressure to deliver commercial and policy outcomes.

We give pragmatic advice and support by selecting best practice and tailoring it to the needs of our clients. The world of skills and workforce development is changing rapidly, driven by the pressures of technology and globalisation, and so we remain adaptable by having no single proprietary or favoured method or technology. Our value lies in the connections we make through our networks, our ability to spot a winning solution, and our experience in reformulating good ideas in new contexts. Our ambition is that our name is always seen as a reliable mark of quality in skills and workforce development.

The methodologies we favour are those which are openly available, not just because they keep costs down for our clients, but also because they are peer-reviewed and well-evidenced – we might use recent developments in England as our basis for work in Apprenticeship or Qualifications, or UNESCO’s research as the foundation for improvements to education-to-employment processes or careers guidance.

Specialist Services

Government and transnational organisations

TVET policy – supporting policy makers in designing and evaluating policy.
Regulation of TVET – working with regulators to build mechanisms for quality assurance and customer protection.

Qualifications, credentials and learning

Beyond National Occupational Standards and Qualification Frameworks – helping build strategies at the interface between the supply and demand side of labour markets.
Standards and curriculum support – reinventing the concept of ‘learning outcomes’ to benefit learners and employers.
Quality control and legitimacy – ensuring a meaningful skills mark through quality controlled skills assessment.

Workforce development planning

Governance and strategy – structures that give clarity but are also able to adapt
Labour Market Information – finding or interfacing with labour-market intermediaries in a way that gives direction to skills development

Commercial service delivery in skills development

Working with training providers, colleges and schools to improve outcomes for their learners.
Helping service providers, including in education technology, build market and operational strategy.
Finding and building channels to the markets we know best.