3rd Annual Conference

UPSKILLING THE UK WORKFORCE

Thursday 27th November 2008
America Square Conference Centre, London EC3

Two years on from the Leitch Review, the key challenge for education and training providers remains engaging with employers in order to understand, and meet, their skills and training demands. Demographers are predicting a rapid decrease of young people entering the labour market – some 500,000 fewer over coming years. If the UK economy is to keep pace with its main global competitors, and secure future business productivity and individual prosperity, it is vital that the UK re-skills and up-skills those already working.

The Government has clearly made this “skills revolution” a priority, creating lucrative new business opportunities for education and training providers. Train to Gain funding is set to rise to over £1bn by 2010/11; a proposed right for employees to request time for training; and first full Level 3 entitlements for 19-25 year-olds coming into force this autumn. Simultaneously, business is investing more than ever before in staff training: some £39bn annually.

As a new post-19 education and training landscape begins to take shape, this annual conference will map the implications of recent policy developments for providers, including new flexibilities in Train to Gain, the first work of the UKCES such as how to simplify the skills supply, and any outcomes from the IUSS “After Leitch” inquiry. Bringing together senior FE and HE representatives, private training and voluntary sector organisations, the conference will consider how to develop bespoke courses in partnership with employers, how to better articulate your offer to business and how to place employers at the heart of a demand-led system.

For further information contact Paul Rushworth on 020 7324 4364,
e-mail paul.rushworth@neilstewartassociates.co.uk