Member Consultation

As you may know government is currently developing its Further Education White Paper to set the direction of college reform over the coming years. Ensuring that these reforms create the right environment for colleges to deliver higher technical skills that businesses require is a key priority.

To support the development of the reform proposals we will be hosting a series of roundtables in partnership with the Department for Education’s (DfE) Further Education team to privately test reform proposals. As this is a busy time of year for the sector we would like to offer 2 date options to ensure you have the opportunity to contribute to shaping the agenda.

We will be keen to explore, in a Chatham House environment with you:

• Feedback on initial government proposals
• What currently works well in business/FE engagement and how we can scale this
• How FE reform can create enhanced pathways between FE and HE.

We will be joined by colleagues from the Department of Education

• Keith Smith, Director of post-16 Strategy
• Sue Clark, Post-16 Strategy: Employer and Learner Demand Division

These sessions are aimed at:

Business, FE and HE professionals and will be an opportunity for members to hear government’s priorities for the White Paper and shape specific recommendations on ideas to:

• Better engage college and employers to understand their skills needs, and to co-design and co-deliver training that responds to those needs.
• Enable colleges to better support local and regional priorities
• Create a cohesive system between Higher and Further Education
• Support the creation and initial growth of new business – in particular, start-ups that can take advantage of technology that is already available in the marketplace, and that colleges have access to.