As long-standing members of the Skills Builder Partnership, we’re excited to roll out the Universal Framework 2.0 across Topical Talk from August 2025.
This discussion between our Chief Growth Officer, Tiffany Smyly, and our Director of Programmes, Olivia Platman, reflects on why we adopted the framework, what’s worked well, where challenges remain and what the updated framework means for Topical Talk. The blog was transcribed and edited using Gemini and Notebook LM.
Why do we use the Skills Builder Framework?
Tiffany Smyly (TS): When TEEF was founded in 2012, we tried to build our own skills measurement frameworks in collaboration with journalists and teachers. But, like many others, we quickly found the lack of shared language across organisations made meaningful skills assessment difficult. Everyone was doing something slightly different.
That’s why the Skills Builder Universal Framework appealed to us. It offers a common language for essential skills, used across schools, impact organisations and employers. In 2023-24 alone, Skills Builder partnered with over 800 schools, 230 organisations and nearly 100 employers. This broad adoption helps build trust with schools and funders.
As a small charity with a team of 16, we also benefit from Skills Builder’s rigorous research and impact evaluation – something we’d struggle to do at scale. Their support includes access to a control group for comparison, which is a significant asset.
Olivia Platman (OP): Around half our team are qualified teachers but we don’t have in-house specialists focused solely on skills development. Skills Builder gives us access to a broader community of experts, which is invaluable. Their regular partner meetings and annual conferences are practical spaces for collaboration and learning.
Crucially, we’ve never felt like a token partner. We’ve been genuinely involved in shaping Framework 2.0, ensuring it reflects our work and the wider education sector.
What’s worked – and what hasn’t?
OP: The student-facing language is brilliant. It’s clear, straight-forward and visually-appealing. There’s also great consistency which we use over the course of our lessons and in the assessments too. The whole-class assessments also feel like a more efficient way to assess oracy and is more suited to our types of lessons.
The real advantage is that the sky’s the limit with Skills Builder. If you’re a teacher who wants to go beyond our four key skills (speaking, listening problem solving and creativity) or wants some additional support, there’s so much on their website that you can access.
In terms of challenges – not all teachers are familiar with Skills Builder and there’s a need for quality assurance to help them understand how it works. Because our resources aren’t part of the core curriculum, teachers often use them out of personal motivation or interest. When we ask them to assess students using an unfamiliar framework, it adds to the demands on their already limited time. This is a barrier we’re actively working to overcome.
What’s new in Framework 2.0?
TS: The new version introduces some smart improvements:
- Clearer step language is easier to understand, especially for non-native speakers, and helps with classroom observation.
- Skill steps are now grouped into age bands which helps teachers tailor their focus more effectively.
- The Skills Builder website now offers example questions and cues for each skill step – ideal for supporting reflection activities in our lessons.
- Several steps align well with our mission. For example, Speaking step 10, “communicating sensitively,” supports discussions of complex topics and Listening step 14, “investigating bias,” fits perfectly with our focus on media literacy.
What does this mean for Topical Talk?
OP: We’re updating all resources to reflect the new framework by August 2025. This includes skill logos, the language in Headline lessons and our Teacher Toolkit. Going forward, everything we create will use the revised terminology.
We’ll be engaging our teaching community to explain what’s changing, why it matters and where to find support. We’ll also be gathering feedback from teachers and students to make continuous improvements.
In future, we’ll revisit how we support skill assessment, especially for educators outside the UK and US. We aim to develop additional tools to help teachers track progress more easily and consistently.
TS: I’m particularly interested in mapping how our content aligns with each skill step. While we already touch on all of them, some steps are more relevant to current affairs education than others. A focused review will help us decide where to concentrate more effort – and what we might de-emphasise.
In summary, Skills Builder Framework 2.0 gives us stronger tools, clearer language and a more inclusive structure. It supports our mission to bring high-quality, skills-focused current affairs education to classrooms around the world and, as we roll out the changes, we look forward to hearing from our teaching community and continuing to improve together.
Find out more about Skills Builder here and explore our impact to see students’ progress across four essential skills.