Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Sign up, and get your own copy of the news that matters sent to your inbox every week. Sign up for the On EdTech newsletter. Interested in additional analysis? Upgrade to the On EdTech+ newsletter.

What caught my eye and interest this week?

Some interesting reads on EdTech and higher education, but also a few spectacular catches at the Women's T20 World Cup.

A lot of what I read this week left me thinking about the dangers of assuming someone else will solve your problem—whether that is employers waiting for colleges to produce skilled workers or institutions assuming future growth will justify today's investments.

The Open University Business Barometer 2026 report offers some fascinating insight into the inconsistent and uncommitted way many businesses think about employee training. The report is naturally focused on the UK and is ostensibly about skills shortages and the potential of adults Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEETs) to help fill those gaps. But what it reveals about training, reskilling, and upskilling has much broader applicability.

Reading the report, I kept coming back to a simple conclusion: everyone wants skilled workers, but fewer organizations seem willing to invest in creating them. The headline statistic is that 57% of employers in the UK report a skills shortage, and 42% expect it to worsen over the next five years.

Right off the bat, there seems to be a contradiction. Unemployment is higher than it has been in recent years, which should make it easier to hire the people you need. Yet 43% of employers report hiring fewer people over the past twelve months—presumably because they can't find the skills they need.

These skills shortages have led to real and serious impacts for employers, including increased workload and turnover and lower morale.

Given those shortages, you might expect employers to be aggressively investing in developing talent. That is exactly what they say they are doing.