Unlocking Inclusive Growth: How OCN London Supports the Inclusive Talent Strategy
By Amarjit Dhanjal Thursday 30th October 2025Creating opportunity through inclusion, partnership and skills
London’s Inclusive Talent Strategy is a key part of the capital’s long-term economic plan — one that recognises that inclusion and productivity are inseparable. It aims to ensure that every Londoner can access good work, and that businesses can find the skills they need to grow sustainably.
The strategy acknowledges that too many people remain excluded from opportunity because of barriers linked to health, caring responsibilities, or lack of access to training — while many employers struggle to recruit and retain staff with the right mix of skills. The central idea is simple but transformative: if London wants to grow fairly and competitively, it must build a truly inclusive skills and employment system.
To achieve this, the Strategy identifies three core actions — practical levers that together create the conditions for inclusive growth.
Action 1 – Put employers at the heart of the skills and employment system
What this action means
This first action calls for a shift in how the skills system operates: from being largely supply-led (what courses providers choose to offer) to being demand-led (what skills employers actually need).
The aim is not only to involve employers as consultees, but to embed them as active partners in designing, validating and promoting the qualifications that feed their sectors. In practice, this means closer collaboration between businesses, training providers, local authorities and awarding organisations to ensure that skills provision is relevant, responsive and future-proof.
The Inclusive Talent Strategy specifically highlights Skills Passports as a model of how employer-led collaboration can bridge the gap between learning and recruitment. Passports allow jobseekers to demonstrate verified, transferable skills and help employers identify job-ready candidates quickly and confidently.
How OCN London supports this action
OCN London plays an important enabling role in this ecosystem. As the awarding body that accredits the Hospitality Skills Passport in collaboration with UK Hospitality, we ensure that the training and skills it recognises meet nationally regulated quality standards. This partnership exemplifies how employers and awarding organisations can work together to create practical, scalable solutions that open up opportunities for people and meet genuine business needs. With over 170 passports issued to date, 18 approved centres and a further 40+ in the approval pipeline, this steady expansion shows that the approach is gaining strong traction.
More broadly, OCN London supports this action by:
- Collaborating with employers and sector bodies to co-design qualifications that reflect current and emerging workforce needs — whether in creative industries, digital productivity, green skills or textiles.
- Embedding flexibility in qualification design, so that centres can tailor learning to different contexts — from workplace training to blended and part-time delivery.
- Recognising short, targeted achievements through microcredentials and digital badges that help employers see exactly what skills a learner has acquired.
These mechanisms help translate the Strategy’s first ambition — a genuinely employer-driven skills system — into reality.
Action 2 – Ensure Londoners can access the right training and career pathways
What this action means
The second action tackles a persistent problem: while opportunities exist, many Londoners cannot access them. The reasons are diverse — from cost, caring commitments and travel, to low confidence, disability or previous negative experiences of education.
The Strategy therefore calls for a more joined-up approach linking skills, employment, health and careers services so that people can find the right support at the right moment. It also emphasises the importance of clear pathways: routes that enable learners to see how short courses, qualifications, and work experience can build towards sustained employment in growth sectors.
In essence, this action is about making the system work for everyone — by offering flexible, inclusive entry points and transparent progression routes.
How OCN London supports this action
OCN London’s qualifications and approach are designed around those same principles:
- Accessibility and flexibility – our qualifications range from Entry Level to Level 6 and can be delivered full-time, part-time or online, ensuring that learning fits around life.
- Inclusive assessment – we promote varied assessment methods and recognise prior learning, helping those with existing experience or different learning needs to demonstrate achievement fairly.
- Progression and coherence – our qualification frameworks make it clear how learners can move from small units or microcredentials into larger Awards or Certificates, or progress towards apprenticeships and higher education.
- Employer relevance – because OCN London qualifications are co-designed with industry partners, they map onto real job roles and labour-market needs, supporting genuine career mobility rather than training in isolation.
Through these approaches, we help to reduce the structural barriers that keep some people locked out of opportunity — supporting the Strategy’s goal of an accessible, equitable skills system.
Action 3 – Remove the barriers to staying in work and building a career
What this action means
Getting into work is only the first step. The third action recognises that progression, retention and fair work are equally vital for inclusive growth. Many people leave employment because of health issues, inflexible working patterns or lack of progression prospects. The Strategy therefore seeks to ensure that workers can stay in work, adapt to change and advance their careers as sectors evolve.
This requires a culture of lifelong learning — one that gives workers access to upskilling and reskilling opportunities throughout their careers. It also demands a system that values transferable skills and supports transitions between sectors, especially as the economy changes through digitalisation and the move to net-zero.
How OCN London supports this action
OCN London contributes to this agenda by fostering a culture of ongoing learning and progression:
- Stackable qualifications and microcredentials allow individuals to build skills incrementally, supporting continuous professional development without disrupting employment.
- Applied, work-based learning ensures that assessment reflects real tasks and competencies, helping individuals demonstrate value and readiness for advancement.
- Transferable skills such as communication, teamwork and digital literacy are built into many of our qualifications, strengthening employability across roles and sectors.
- Inclusive design principles help learners overcome barriers related to health, neurodiversity or caring responsibilities — supporting retention and long-term engagement.
In this way, OCN London helps to make lifelong learning tangible — ensuring that people can not only access work but stay, progress and thrive.
A shared commitment to inclusive growth
The Inclusive Talent Strategy provides a clear roadmap for building a fairer, more resilient economy — one where employers, providers and learners work together to create opportunity for all.
OCN London’s contribution is as a trusted partner within that system: developing inclusive qualifications, accrediting collaborative initiatives like the Hospitality Skills Passport, and supporting centres to deliver learning that is accessible, relevant and high-quality.
In doing so, we help turn the Strategy’s ambitions into practice — connecting Londoners to opportunity, helping employers meet their skills needs, and strengthening the city’s social and economic fabric.
