Government Skills
Andrew McDonald took up post this week as the new chief executive for Government Skills, the sector skills council for central government.
Formerly Constitution Director at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, Andrew has just completed a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.
Andrew is responsible for directing the work of Government Skills, ensuring it meets the needs of employers in central government, who look to it to take the lead in developing a common approach to learning and development issues. A key piece of work will be to address how the sector responds to the challenging targets for qualifications set in this week's Leitch review of skills in the workforce.
Commenting on his appointment, Andrew said:
"I am delighted to be working on the skills agenda – I have long thought that it is one of the most demanding and interesting challenges we face in the public sector and one which has the potential to deliver the step change in quality public services we are all working towards.
One of our key pieces of work in the months ahead is the development of an end–to–end skills strategy for our sector. We will be working with employers to help define the need and then bringing together employers with training providers and others to put together action plans to close the skills gaps identified."
"Working alongside employers in our sector, we are in an ideal position to link them with each other to ensure we develop a common language for skills development in government and share best practice."
