E-skills UK

The Tech Partnership (formerly "e-skills UK") is the United Kingdom (UK)'s sector skills council for the IT industry. This industry is also described as "Business and Information Technology" or "IT & Telecoms." It is based in central London. Karen Price OBE is the chief executive officer.

The not-for-profit organisation seeks to co-operatively address technology-related skills issues through evidence-based advice, services and programmes. It is led by its constituency so e-skills UK operates in the interests of employers for the purpose of ensuring that the UK is equipped to manage the worldwide digital marketplace.

The UK IT industry is around 8% of the UK economy, and covers 5.7% of the working population (IT and telecoms). 860,000 persons work in the IT industry itself, plus another approximately 680,000 persons who work in IT-related positions. "Continued adoption and exploitation of IT & Telecoms technologies could generate an additional £35 billion to the UK economy."

e-skills UK existed in name before 2003 as one of the National Training Organisations (NTO). Their website, www.e-skills.com, has existed since at least the year 2000.

The National Training Organisations became the Sector Skills Councils (SSC) in April 2003. SSCs were started by the Sector Skills Development Agency, under the leadership of chief executive being Christopher Duff. The numbers of the organisations reduced to 23, and funding was increased. e-skills UK was one of the first Councils to be formed. e-skills UK was initially given a five-year licence to be the SSC for the IT and Telecoms industry, under the leadership of Karen Price. In March 2005 e-skills UK was one of four SSCs to publish their first Sector Skills Agreement, nailing down what they hoped to realistically achieve; the other councils to publish agreements at that time were the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies (SEMTA), Skillset and ConstructionSkills.