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Employers and colleges unite to drive up UK skills

New alliance set to deliver Leitch vision

1 June 2007

A new alliance aimed at bringing employers and colleges closer together to deliver more economically valuable skills launches today.

The alliance brings together employers, college principals, and executives from the AoC, the Sector Skills Councils and the Sector Skills Development Agency, which supports and funds the SSCs.

It is the first time the demand and supply sides of education and training have come together in this way to construct and deliver learning and qualifications relevant to the world of work.

The move has been sparked by the Leitch Review of Skills which called for the UK to commit to becoming a world leader in skills by 2020.

David Hunter, CEO of Lifelong Learning UK and chair of the new AoC/SfBn group said: "For too long the supply and demand sides of the education and training system have worked in silos, but this alliance is determined to cut through the red–tape and rise to the challenge of delivering the Leitch vision."

Today the partners issued a joint statement outlining their common ground and setting out their action plan for "real and substantial change" across the skills agenda. Their remit includes:

• Jointly developing, promoting and increasing the availability of flexible and bite–sized learning, as well as full qualifications, to meet the needs of employers and individual learners
• Ensuring a flexible, modular–based credit and qualifications framework that can adapt to and support different models of learning and skills training
• Encouraging employers and colleges to engage with the skills agenda
• Working together to reduce funding barriers and bureaucracy
• Combining the expertise and influence of the AoC and the SfBn to shape policy and form an effective partnership to successfully deliver the skills agenda

Read the full Joint Statement and Press Release below:

• Joint statement [PDF 99KB]
• Joint press release [PDF 158KB]