Conference Programme
08:40 – Registration and Networking
09:20 – Chair’s Opening Remarks:
Lord Archy Kirkwood, Former Chair, Work and Pensions Select Committee (Confirmed)
09:25 – Business skills, entrepreneurship and growth
- Engaging with SMEs to drive growth
- The Regional Growth Fund - Stimulating private sector led growth through £2.4bn of investment
- Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth - £75 million boost for high tech small and medium sized businesses
- Providing £50 million a year fund to help businesses develop the skills they need to drive growth
- The role of the Big Society Bank, community and business finance in helping deliver growth
- Ensuring SMEs have access to the skills and training they need to grow
- Providing £250m for employer led training - encouraging employers to deliver skills
- Funding skills sector councils to provide information and support to businesses in order that they can invest wisely in skills and business development
- £30m fund to support small firms - creating 20,000 additional young apprentices and measures to reduce red tape for all employers providing apprenticeships
- Working with the 250 employers who will benefit from world class, nationally accredited technical training delivered in the workplace
- Digital skills and e-learning – gaining online proficiency and upskilling the workforce
- The National Careers Advisory Service - providing support to priority groups, and supporting individuals and organisations through the open market
- Working as SME Envoy to the European Commission – promoting the role SMEs can play in delivering growth
Adam Jackson, Director of Enterprise, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Confirmed)
09:40 – Tackling Social Exclusion – Building Social Justice
- Promoting employment as the best route out of poverty
- Investing £450m to help turn around the lives of 120,000 problem families - using payment by results and working with the private sector
- Using £200m of funding from European Social Fund to help families with multiple problems overcome barriers to work and move closer to the labour market
- The Youth Contract - £1bn to equip young people with the skills to gain sustainable employment
- Enhancing the specialised support that local organisations can give to the most vulnerable community members
- Enabling individuals to fulfil their potential - supporting people in making positive choices and taking personal responsibility
- DWP to provide more intensive and effective job search support and greater access to Jobcentre Plus services for 16-17 year olds seeking employment
- Jobcentre Plus advisers and partners engaging with voluntary and charitable organisations such as Shelter and the Prince’s Trust to improve young people’s access to broader support, and to contribute to community life through volunteering
- Rolling out the Work Programme and the Universal Credit
- Driving for social mobility and increasing fair access to job
- Supporting economic growth in our cities
Boyd Wood, Partnerships Division, Jobseekers and Skills Directorate, DWP (Confirmed)
09:55 – UKCES - Developing the Skills for the Future
- The Growth and Innovation Fund - providing £50 million a year (£100m including Government investment) to help businesses develop the skills they need to drive growth
- Ensuring business has the power to shape the training support the nation requires
- Giving employers more freedom to design and deliver training including apprenticeships and work experience
- Funding skills sector councils to provide information and support to businesses in order that they can invest wisely in skills and business development
- Investing in skills in targeted sectors, such as the land based and environmental sector, to deliver support and growth
- Best Market Solutions: investing in innovative ideas to drive enterprise and growth; introducing new voluntary professional standards and voluntary training levies
- Expanding the National Skills Academies and their success so far in areas such as Environmental Technology, Railway Engineering and Retail
- Encouraging collaborative partnership in Universal Services - delivering excellence in the delivery of National Occupational Standards, Apprenticeships, and Modern Apprenticeship frameworks and qualifications
- Business and Sector Skills Councils working in partnership to Drive enterprise, productivity and growth
- The Joint Investment Programme - improving business productivity and growth
- Investing in Manufacturing to support the Growth Agenda
- Emerging technology and the need for skills
- Upskilling – moving from worklessness to sustainable employment
- Addressing barriers to employability in the short-term
- Understanding the changing economy and emerging skills needs
Michael Davis, Chief Executive, UKCES (Confirmed)
10:10 – Enhancing the Contribution Higher Education Makes to the Economy and Society
- Supporting and funding the development of higher education through reform
- Helping HE contribute to economic and social development through innovation, enterprise and skills
- The HEFCE Workforce Development Programme - developing a new relationship between higher education and employers
- Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) - allocating £150 million per year to improve knowledge exchange between Universities and business
- The 'Economic Challenge Investment Fund' - allocating over £28 million for HE to support individuals and businesses affected by the recession
- Knowledge exchange: Boost skills and drive growth in key industries including creative industries, nuclear manufacturing and renewable energy
- Graduate employment and economic challenge - supporting unemployed graduates
Chris Millward, Associate Director and Head of Skills policy, HEFCE (Confirmed)
10:25 - Reducing Barriers to Employment By Ensuring Ex-Offenders Have the Skills to Work
- Working with BIS and investing £133m in training to support offenders to get into work and reduce the likelihood of re-offending
- Working with providers via payment by results to move offenders from prison to work
- Ensuring training for offenders is vocational, personalised and relevant
- Supporting offenders families by ensuring contact with prisoners is maintained, through training and through support networks
- Ensuring offenders have accommodation to move in to when leaving prison, and are financially supported
- Making Prisons Work: Skills for Rehabilitation
- Developing a stronger link between learning in prisons and the vocational and employability skills that employers demand
- Trial outcome incentive payments – giving colleges and training providers a greater stake in delivering learning successfully
Helen Judge, Director, Criminal Policy, Ministry of Justice (Confirmed)
10:40 - Building Engagement, Building Futures
- The Youth contract - support the most vulnerable 16-17 year olds to re-engage in education, Apprenticeships or jobs with training
- Reforming vocational education
- The role of University Technical Colleges in delivering vocational training and education to meet the needs of modern employers
- Placing a greater emphasis on training children to be technologically adept
- Providing £180m in bursaries fund to tackle financial barriers
- Raising the participation age in education or training
David Russell, Director or Participation and Vocational Education, Department for Education (Confirmed)
10:55 – Panel Discussion: Addressing the Key UK Skills Gaps
Michael Davis, Chief Executive, UKCES (Confirmed)
Chris Millward, Associate Director and Head of Skills policy, HEFCE (Confirmed)
David Russell, Director or Participation and Vocational Education, Department for Education (Confirmed)
Helen Judge, Director, Criminal Policy, Ministry of Justice (Confirmed)
Boyd Wood, Partnerships Division, Jobseekers and Skills Directorate, DWP (Confirmed)
Adam Jackson, Director of Enterprise, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Confirmed)
11:25 – Morning Refreshments, Networking and Exhibition
11.55 – Seminar Session I
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seminars
12.55 – Lunch Break and Networking
13.55 - Seminar Session II
14:55 – Afternoon Refreshments, Networking and Exhibition
Afternoon Chair: Steven Bevan, Managing Director, The Work Foundation (Confirmed)
15:25 – Growing an Enterprise Culture
- StartUp 2012 and Business in You - encouraging people to start and grow their own business and promoting partnership working across industry, HE and government
- Working with businesses and research bases to underpin private sector led growth
- Helping to change attitudes towards self-employment
- Giving extra help to unemployed people who want to start their own business, through the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA)
- Stimulating growth through the Regional Growth Fund
- Supporting SMEs by doubling the size of the Designing Demand Programme by £650,000 to £1.3 million a year
- Promoting and supporting an enterprise culture
- Ensuring that LEPs will encourage the development of an enterprise culture
- Working from the bottom-up at the local level with schools, FE and HE institutions and other networks to support individuals who aspire to start and grow their own businesses
- The roles LEPs play in identifying role models to engage with education
- The Manufacturing Advisory Board - the importance of manufacturing in helping deliver £1.5b in economic growth, 23,000 jobs and safeguard 50,000 jobs
Greg Chammings, Enterprise Policy & Strategy , Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (Confirmed)
15:40 – Preparing the offender workforce for the Revolution!
Debbie Ryan, Director of Justice Services, Working Links (Confirmed)
15:55 - CASE STUDY: Tackling Entrenched Unemployment - Blackpool
- Better engaging clients with existing employment services (and understanding why they weren't using them)
- Identifying those who are disengaged with pre-work support programmes
- Working with those furthest from employment, including those with very little / no work experience / no qualifications / offending history / substance abuse
- Overcoming ingrained and intergenerational welfare dependency
- Working closely with employment agencies and developed the pre-work training programme to bridge the gaps (greater pre-work prep) and fed into existing services.
- Welfare and back-to-work training for all frontline staff
- Clear referrals pathways to employment/training and education opportunities
- Effectively tracking and monitoring systems to measure effectiveness
- Providing seamless support before, during and at completion of work placements
- Partnership working with housing associations, Jobcentre Plus and SureStart
- Working with housing associations to tackling worklessness and social exclusion among tenants
- The value of vocational learning
Peter Legg, Head of Enterprise and Employment, Blackpool Council (Confirmed)
16.10 - Getting the UK Working
- Schools working closely with business – providing better work experience, the role of ‘business champions’ and creating a new ‘employability’ school status
- Bridging the gap between school and apprenticeships – investing in pre-apprenticeship courses to help young people from harder-hit communities find their way into apprenticeships
- Reforming benefit provision to ensure that work pays
- improving the advice that Job Centre Plus gives claimants through a new “readiness for work” assessment
- The Public, Private and Voluntary Sectors working together to deliver growth and employment
- Mapping the Route to Growth - Understanding specific skills needs by regions of the UK and analysis of local and regional data
- Encouraging degree-level skills and flexibility (eg part-time working) to reduce unemployment and inactivity
Jim Bligh, Principal Policy Advisor, Employment Affairs Directorate, CBI (Confirmed)
16:25 – CASE STUDY: Empowering Local Leadership for Growth - The Leeds City Region Pilot
- Employment and Skills Plan - agreeing clear priorities and direct commissioning for
adult skills and employability programmes in the city region
- Taking a multi agency approach to employment and skills - working with the healthcare and housing sectors
- Reducing the administrative burdens in order that SMEs can commit to training
- Up-skilling the workforce and tailoring
investments to meet local needs
- The importance of leadership in tackling the recession and strengthening our global competitiveness
- Investing in housing and regeneration, transport, employment
and skills, and innovation
- The Leeds City Region Development Programme - investing in transport networks and skills for the labour force to inhibit growth
- Improving joint targets through a multi-area agreement
- The Innovation City Leeds programme - creating new gateways to global markets
- The Leeds City Region 20-year Transport Strategy- Strengthening transport networks for Sustainable Economic Growth
Councillor Andrew Carter, Leeds City Council (Confirmed)
16:40 - Working with Employers to Deliver Apprenticeships
- The Higher Apprenticeship Fund: Investing in skills to boost business and productivity and make the UK more competitive
- Working with the Department for Education to establish Apprenticeships alongside other 14-19 options
- Increasing the number of apprenticeship opportunities and providing a dedicated, responsive services for employers and learners
- The practical tools for working with 250 employers and ensuring nationally accredited technical training is delivered in the workplace
- Boosting the role of SME's in delivering apprenticeships
- Creating a more efficient and simple apprenticeship recruitment service via an online web-based matching service
- Ensuring that at least 1 in 5 are undertaking an apprenticeship by 2020
- Increasing the number of employers engaged in apprenticeship programmes, especially in the public sector
- Expanding apprenticeships from 19-24 to include 19-30 year old's
- Ensuring more level 4 apprenticeships are available in all areas
Jon Thorn, Head of Business Development (London/SE), National Apprenticeships Service (Confirmed)
16:55 - Working in Partnership to Help Move People Into Sustainable Employment
- Working with employers to ensure skills match demand
- Identifying those who could most benefit from support and encouraging them to take up employment opportunities
- Ensuring employers are directly involved in quality assurance and assessment of training at local level
- Using data about current and emerging jobs, identifying skills needs - working with local training providers to develop short courses designed to meet skills needs
- Moving delivery towards intensely personalised support focused around the individual
- Delivering a family-wide intervention programme to tackle worklessness
- Re-integrating ex-offenders through employment - education, skills and training
- Reforming employment support
- Looking at mentoring schemes and close engagement with employer and employee to stop vulnerable people falling out of a job and back into the benefits system
- The role of the new National Careers Service – from April 2012 - providing adult career guidance; driving quality and professional standards
Ruth Owen, Work Services Director and Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Department for Work and Pensions (Confirmed)
17:10 – Questions and Answers and Close
