London, UK – The UK’s Transport Committee has urged the government to consider implementing a “competency passport” for the transport manufacturing sector. The proposed passport would formally recognise transferable skills, aiming to make it easier for workers to switch roles and subsectors within the industry, which is currently facing significant skills shortages and a rapid shift towards cleaner technologies. The recommendation is part of a new report, “Engine for growth: securing skills for transport manufacturing,” published on January 28, 2026, which examines how to secure the future skills pipeline for the vital sector.
Addressing Critical Skills Gaps in Transport Manufacturing
The Transport Committee’s report highlights widespread concerns among manufacturers in the aerospace, automotive, rail, and maritime industries regarding their ability to access a sufficiently skilled workforce. The transition to net-zero emissions and advanced engineering is fundamentally reshaping job requirements, leading to acute skills gaps across multiple subsectors. MPs concluded that current training pathways are too slow to adapt and are failing to attract enough young people into these potentially lucrative careers.
Ruth Cadbury, Chair of the Transport Committee, emphasized the need for the Department for Transport (DfT) to conduct a thorough assessment of how well the UK’s vocational training system is meeting the needs of transport manufacturers.
The Role and Benefits of a Competency Passport
A competency passport is envisioned as a mechanism to recognize and document the skills and qualifications of workers, thereby facilitating their mobility within the transport manufacturing sector. Such a passport would serve as a secure, portable record of an operative’s competence, compliance, and readiness to work, often taking the form of a smartcard or mobile wallet linked to a central database.
How a Competency Passport Works
Typically, a digital competency passport would include:
- Training and Qualification History: Detailing role-specific certifications and continuous professional development (CPD).
- Security and Medical Clearances: Including right-to-work status and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.
- Contract Compliance Evidence: Applicable to employees, agency staff, and subcontractors.
This system moves beyond traditional paper-based records, offering live, site-specific, and instantly accessible information, which can be verified in real-time. Similar “safety passports” or “skills passports” are already in use in other sectors like construction, highways, rail (e.g., Network Rail’s Sentinel card), and utilities in the UK, demonstrating their practical benefits in ensuring safety and compliance.
Advantages for Workers and Industry
For workers, a competency passport would offer:
- Enhanced Mobility: Making it easier to move between different roles and subsectors within transport manufacturing without needing to re-prove foundational skills.
- Recognized Skills: Providing formal recognition of transferable skills, potentially boosting career progression.
- Personal Agency: Empowering individuals with a portable, trusted credential of their skills.
For the industry, the benefits include:
- Improved Workforce Agility: Creating a more flexible workforce capable of responding to evolving technologies and market demands across automotive, aerospace, and rail.
- Minimized Skill Loss: Reducing the loss of highly-trained expertise during sector-specific downturns.
- Streamlined Recruitment: Simplifying the validation of worker competencies for employers.
- Support for Net-Zero Transition: Facilitating the upskilling and reskilling necessary for new technologies like electric vehicles and alternative fuels.
Broader Recommendations and Challenges
Beyond the competency passport, the Transport Committee’s report makes several other key recommendations to address the skills crisis. These include:
- Reinstating Level 7 Apprenticeship Funding: Expressing concern that the removal of funding for Level 7 apprenticeships for individuals aged 22 and over could undermine the supply of experienced, highly skilled workers. The report supports calls for this funding to be reinstated across key growth sectors.
- Apprenticeship Levy Flexibility: While broadly supporting the apprenticeship levy, MPs noted that restrictions on how funds can be spent limit employers’ ability to invest effectively in skills. The committee recommends greater flexibility under the forthcoming Growth and Skills Levy.
- Diversity Targets: The report suggests the government consider linking access to levy funding to employers’ progress against their own diversity targets, particularly to address the underrepresentation of women in the sector.
- Vocational Training Review: A comprehensive assessment by the Department for Transport (DfT) on how well the UK’s vocational training system is meeting the needs of transport manufacturers, with findings shared across government.
However, implementing a widespread competency passport system is not without its challenges. Defining competencies accurately and aligning them with diverse industry standards, designing effective and consistent assessment tools, and managing individualized learning paths are all complex issues. Overcoming potential biases in evaluation and ensuring buy-in from both employers and employees will be crucial for successful implementation. Despite these hurdles, the Transport Committee believes that such an initiative, alongside other recommended reforms, is vital for securing the long-term future of the UK’s transport manufacturing sector.
