This paper was presented at an event, 'The Skills Revolution: can lifelong learning save the UK economy?', jointly organised by NEON, Ruskin College, The University of West London, and CEILUP (Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up). In the paper the author argues that there is an urgent need to rethink and reform England's skills system and develop an approach to education and training that genuinely offers learning opportunities from the cradle to the grave. Rethinking the skills system is, therefore, now an urgent necessity and so ensuring education and training systems are accessible to all, adaptable, relevant, agile and responsive to changing needs must be a policy priority.