'Not from Whitehall alone' was the line Lucy Powell wanted hanging over No.10 North in Manchester on 10 September 2026. The Education Secretary brought together regional mayors, business leaders, headteachers and college principals for a summit on how England prepares young people for work, with devolution and technical education doing most of the heavy lifting. For Greater Manchester and other northern city regions, the argument will sound familiar because it is. Local leaders have long said the skills system works better when it reflects the employers, colleges and communities in a place, not a template written in Whitehall.

The meeting was billed as the first in a regular series and was held ahead of the government's planned devolution white paper. Powell's pitch was that reform should be co-designed with the people who actually deliver it and understand their area's strengths and pressures. Holding the summit at No.10 North mattered too. Manchester was not just the backdrop; it was the point. Still, northern leaders have heard this argument before, and they will judge the plan less by the speeches than by whether real control follows over funding, course design and work placements.

Ministers arrived with numbers they were keen to use. Earlier that week, the latest PISA report showed England either improved or held steady against a wider international slide, staying well above OECD averages in reading, maths and science. The government pointed to Estonia as proof that strong academic results and strong technical education can sit side by side. That thinking shaped the talks in Manchester. The focus was on vocational routes from age 14, better work experience, and giving technical and academic education equal status. It also builds on plans to introduce V levels from age 16 and expand T levels from September 2027, part of a wider effort to cut the number of young people not in education, employment or training, with ministers putting that figure at nearly one million.

The prize, if ministers follow through, is substantial. The government wants to devolve billions of pounds connected to education for 16 to 19-year-olds, giving local leaders a bigger hand in how money is spent and what provision looks like on the ground. In places such as Greater Manchester, where world-class employers can sit a short tram ride from communities locked out of opportunity, that is a serious test of whether devolution is real or largely decorative. Sector figures welcomed the direction of travel. Bill Watkin of the Sixth Form Colleges Association said the summit could mark a new chapter of collaboration between education, industry and government. David Hughes of the Association of Colleges said colleges already do much of this work and now need stronger local partnerships, with elected mayors helping lead it. The message from both was plain enough: the bones of the system are already there, but it needs backing, patience and trust.

The same day, Jacqui Smith used her first speech to the higher education sector of the new term, at Universities UK's annual conference, to tell university leaders they should see themselves as part of the same reform effort. Her warning was sharp: there is little point building growth if it only adds gloss to places that are already prosperous. That will ring true across the North. Universities' local ties, Smith argued, matter as much as their national and international reputation, and they should work more closely with mayors, colleges and employers to turn local opportunity into courses, placements and decent jobs. For towns and city regions trying to keep talent close to home, that is not a side issue. It is central to whether growth feels real in everyday life.

The government pointed to examples already in play. In the Humber, the University of Hull works with Siemens Gamesa and Orsted so students can move into placements and graduate roles, while a master's degree apprenticeship developed with Siemens Gamesa is training future offshore wind engineers. In the West of England, UWE Bristol and University Centre Weston have built engineering degree apprenticeships with Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN Aerospace, mixing paid work with degree study. These are not just neat case studies for a ministerial speech. They show what place-based planning can look like when universities, colleges and employers shape provision around actual jobs. Northern leaders will look at those examples and ask where the same long-term backing can be locked in for advanced manufacturing, clean energy, construction, logistics and digital firms closer to home.

Others at the Manchester summit tried to put the reforms in a wider civic and labour market frame. Leora Cruddas of the Confederation of School Trusts argued that public institutions should be treated as civic assets that build trust and belonging. Amazon UK's John Boumphrey said around half of the company's operations recruits come either from unemployment or straight from education, and repeated a point few in the room would dispute: talent is evenly distributed across the country even if opportunity is not. For now, the government has much of the language right: local leadership, technical routes with proper status, and growth that reaches beyond the usual postcodes. The harder bit comes next. If Whitehall is ready to share power as well as responsibility, Manchester may come to look like the start of something useful. If not, northern leaders will be entitled to ask why they were invited to the table in the first place.