Past fellows and projects

Employers in the driving seat? New thinking for FE leadership

A major new 12 month research project called Employers in the driving seat? New thinking for FE leadership has been launched by AELP – the Association of Employment and Learning Providers supported by FETL, the Further Education Trust for Leadership.

We invite senior leaders from across the FE and Skills sector in the UK to get involved in round table discussions about the implications of moving towards a more employer-focused system.

The research starts from the premise that under the current suite of reforms the FE and skills sector is rebalancing its relative involvement of employers, the State and providers. Where once FE may have said to the employer, “This is what is on offer – do you want it or not?”, this rebalancing means that employers are increasingly setting down the ‘rules of engagement’ for what they want provision to do for them, and FE is having to react to that. This requires a change in the thinking of sector leaders from before; a change in both what they need to think about, and in how they reach their decisions.

The project will offer the rare opportunity for FE sector leaders to stand back, review directions of travel and spend time thinking individually and collectively about their decision-making and how it is changing, with the aim of producing an authoritative yet simple aid to public understanding of the contribution of FE and skills to lives and the economy.

Invites are extended to Heads of Organisation and Senior Leadership Teams in ITPs, Colleges, ACL, Employer Providers as well as EPAOs, AOs, national bodies and policy-makers.   There are nine structured round-table discussions taking place between April and June 2018 around the country.