When the forerunner of the Trust was first established in the late 19th Century, the drive for commercial education was to meet a specific skills gap. Employers in the City of London typically wanted clerks skilled in accounting, commercial geography, arithmetic and foreign languages..

As new waves of scientific and technological discovery transform many aspects of our lives, there are significant opportunities for educators, employers and policy makers to work together to develop the skills sets which will be essential for a modern workforce.

The Trust wants to see people Learn, Apply and Achieve through:

• education for work which has equal status with academic attainment in the eyes of learners, teachers, lecturers, parents and policy makers
• equal access to commercial education and quality work experience for all, and as an integral part of basic education
• increased employer engagement with schools, colleges and universities to build employability skills and experience of real work
• a workplace culture that helps new recruits settle into the workplace and allows them to grow and use their skills
• sufficient academic and practical research into commercial education carried out to inform policy and operational decision making
• an industrial strategy that also works to develop the skills of the self-employed, freelancers and temporary workers.