Beyond the CV: How a £200k Tech Push Could Redefine Employability for UK Charities

A new £200,000 investment into two pioneering technology projects is set to tackle one of the UK’s most persistent social and economic challenges. This funding is not just a tech story for the charity sector; it’s a beacon of hope. By using AI and immersive technology to assess often-uncertified skills, this initiative offers a potential blueprint for making hidden talents visible, providing a powerful new tool for charities working to unlock the potential of both their beneficiaries and their workforce.

Investing in Immersive Technology to Uncover Hidden Talents

For charity leaders seeking to address persistent skills gaps and create more effective employment pathways, understanding the specifics of this new funding is crucial. The investment represents a targeted effort to pilot innovative assessment methods that move beyond traditional qualifications, offering a glimpse into a more equitable future for skills recognition.

The initiative, backed by NCFE’s Assessment Innovation Fund in partnership with Ufi VocTech Trust, has awarded over £200,000 to two experiential learning platforms: Bodyswaps and Sixty Learn Ltd. The funding is designed to explore how technology can better recognise and appreciate essential employability skills—competencies like communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and resilience.

These abilities are also termed “durable skills” or “human capability,” which, according to some academic analyses, will account for over 62% of all future job profiles. The investment is a direct response to a nationally recognised problem, referenced in the government’s Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, that many people lack the foundational skills needed to progress in the workplace.

“We’re delighted to be working with Bodyswaps and Sixty Learn Ltd on two projects that evaluate new approaches to assessing the essential skills most valued by employers… We hope that these projects will provide valuable insights that can shape new and innovative training and assessment approaches to address skills gaps.”

— Dr Rebecca Conway, Director of Research and Innovation at NCFE

These projects, therefore, represent a practical attempt to solve this challenge by using cutting-edge technology to identify and validate these crucial, yet often overlooked, abilities.

How AI and Simulation are Making Skills Visible

Examining the two funded projects reveals a significant departure from traditional, exam-based assessment. Their use of AI and virtual reality represents a strategic move to create low-stress, high-insight environments where learners can demonstrate practical skills. For charities, these models could provide a practical blueprint for future skills development programmes.

Bodyswaps’ “Story of Learner Growth” project uses immersive technology and AI to create a low-stress, meaningful way to assess essential skills. The initiative is specifically focused on vocational learners in construction and motor vehicle apprenticeships, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). For charities that have long struggled to evidence soft-skill development in funding reports, the promise of making these skills “visible, measurable, and meaningfully recognised” is a potential game-changer.

“Essential or soft skills are consistently recognised as a key factor in learners’ success… Yet in many colleges and vocational settings, these skills remain under-assessed and undervalued. This project aims to change that by empowering educators with the tools to make essential skills development visible, measurable, and meaningfully recognised.”

— Chris Mallet, Co-founder and CEO of Bodyswaps

Sixty Learn Ltd is deploying its experiential learning platform, which uses AI-powered simulations of realistic workplace scenarios, such as giving a manager an update or planning workloads. The platform provides personalised, actionable feedback, allowing learners to develop their skills in a safe environment. For organisations, this technology offers a scalable way to provide tailored support and gain deeper insight into learner progress.

“We know employability training is often optional, unassessed, and undervalued – directly impacting learners’ futures… Without credible assessment, students lack personal insight or recognition for the skills employers value most – and we’re on a mission to change that.”

— Ellie Simpson, Co-founder of Sixty Learn Ltd

These technological innovations are not emerging in a vacuum but are part of a much broader shift in education and employment policy across the UK and internationally.

Contextualising the Move Beyond Traditional Qualifications

These two projects are not isolated experiments but practical examples of a systemic shift in education and employment policy. For charity sector leaders, understanding this wider context is vital. It will help them appreciate the long-term significance of this investment and prepare for a future in which skills are recognised in more granular and equitable ways.

This “lack of parity of esteem” noted by regional authorities like West Yorkshire is a direct consequence of a credentialing system that, as academic analysis highlights, consistently fails to recognise the “durable, soft skills” that are often the primary focus of charity-led interventions.

In response, there is a growing trend across the UK towards alternative credentials. This is evident in major policy initiatives, including the development of a national Micro-Credential Framework in Scotland and regional initiatives like the “West Yorkshire Promise,” designed to create a framework for recognising essential skills backed by local employers.

These initiatives are moving towards a future built on micro-credentials, badging, and digital wallets. These tools allow individuals to “carry evidence of their skills around with them within digital wallets rather than as a traditional resume/CV,” enabling them to upskill with “specific skills… rather than the traditional requirement to completely retrain.” For a refugee charity, for example, this could provide a standardised way to certify the informal project management skills a beneficiary gained while organising a community event.

This shift in policy is not merely academic; it is forging a new toolkit of credentials with direct implications for how charities empower their communities.

New Tools for Employment and Empowerment

The profound implications of these new assessment technologies are not to be underestimated. They have the potential to revolutionise the charity sector, impacting its role as both a major employer and a crucial service provider. These tools offer a new lens through which to view potential and ability, creating opportunities to improve outcomes, demonstrate impact for funders, and empower beneficiaries with agency.

As employers, charities can find that traditional CVs fail to capture the resilience and problem-solving skills essential for many roles. Platforms like Bodyswaps, designed for low-stress assessment, could allow charities to evaluate a candidate with SEND for their actual problem-solving abilities, moving beyond the potential barriers of a traditional, high-pressure interview.

As service providers, many charities run vital programmes for individuals facing barriers to work. A successful project described in The Guardian supported long-term unemployed people by building relationships and developing their employability skills. While effective, its impact was limited by the use of human-intensive methods. The AI simulations pioneered by Sixty Learn offer a direct model for scaling that proven, relationship-based approach, providing beneficiaries with the verifiable credentials the original project participants may have lacked. This focus on recognising practical skills is perfectly aligned with the changing demands of the modern workplace.

“As the world of work continues to change at pace, employability skills are essential in helping individuals and organisations adapt and thrive. We look forward to seeing how these two new innovations can help develop and provide recognition of these crucial skills.”

— Jane Holmes, Associate Director of Grants at Ufi VocTech Trust

As these technologies mature, the key question becomes how the charity sector can best harness them to further its mission.

A Measurable Step Towards a More Inclusive Workforce

The £200,000 investment in Bodyswaps and Sixty Learn is a catalyst within a much broader movement to redefine how we value and recognise human potential. This shift away from a rigid reliance on traditional qualifications towards a more granular appreciation of essential skills holds immense promise for the charity sector. By making abilities such as resilience and critical thinking visible and measurable, these innovations could unlock significant talent within the communities charities serve, creating more equitable pathways to employment. For sector leaders, the key takeaway is clear: these pilots are not a niche tech story but a live test of the tools that could soon become central to demonstrating impact and fostering a more inclusive workforce. The time to pay attention is now.