The Story so far

Created in 2000, Skill Force is an independent national charity operating in England and Scotland. 

Our specialisation started with Key Stage 4 pupils who were identified as “difficult to reach”. From here our expertise has spread through Wider Key Skills training to “Life Skills” development generally. Schools and LEAs use Skill Force to not only work with their more challenging students, but also to develop wide-ranging programmes, from the leadership development of their most talented senior pupils, to supporting younger students during the significant transition phase from primary to secondary school.

We help schools deliver after school clubs ranging from sports coaching to Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme.  We also work with other partners such as the Shaftesbury Partnership, YHA and The Royal British Legion to deliver activities in the summer holidays.

Our results with over 40,000 young people have been outstanding and life changing.  10 times as many of the most disadvantaged young people on Free School Meals get into Further Education than the national average.  We also see around a five fold reduction in exclusion and traunsy.

We have been running a number of pilot courses in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence to help train some of the recently wounded and long term sick to work alongside our people in the classroom as part of their recovery pathway.  

Skill Force started in 2000 with 2 teams. Today we have over 20 teams, over 170 staff and work with around 5000 young people.

Peter Cross OBE

Chief Executive Officer