Connecting the Dots: the Role of Further Education in Local Priorities and National Challenges

The APGSE is delighted to partner with the Further Education Trust for Leadership to bring you this timely discussion on making our skills system work across the cournty. 

This event will ask what the role of the FE sector is in addressing national challenges and meeting local priorities, and follows on from our Parliamentary Winter Symposium on Lifelong Learning in December. The discussion will develop themes explored in Prof Ewart Keep’s FETL Monologue – Scripting the Future and the Skills Commission’s current FETL funded inquiry into the future of the skills system. As such we will be joined by Skills Commissioners Prof Ewart Keep, Director of the Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), Oxford University, and Smita Jamdar, Partner at Shakespeare Martineau. Together with Bristol South MP Karin Smyth and Cllr Mark Hawthorne, leader of Gloucestershire County Council, our panellists will discuss the opportunities and tensions within national and local approaches to skills provision.

In exploring the extent to which institutional, local system and national priorities align, the session will consider what cultural and policy changes are needed to ensure that the potential of FE is recognised and the sector is able to fully contribute to national life. As Combined Authorities and LEPs draft their local industrial strategies and supporting skills plans, we invite you to join colleagues from across the skills system and national and local government to engage in this timely discussion.

The symposium will help you to forecast future challenges and opportunities for your own workstreams, and introduce you to others working in your area and beyond. Please find full details and you can secure your place via this link.