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| At the Labour Party Conference, on 23rd September, The City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development hosted a round table discussion, entitled ‘Re-engaging the disengaged: vocational education as a path out of social exclusion’.
The Centre for Skills Development believes that vocational education has a wider value than simply helping to build financial prosperity: it has the power to engage people in their communities, boost their self-esteem and life chances, and give them skills that they can put to use for social as well as economic benefits.
The debate focused around the following questions:
• How can disengaged members of our society be reached and brought back into training? How best can we use modern technology, as well as more traditional resources, to deliver training?
• How should Information, Advice and Guidance best be structured so as to offer a comprehensive service that meets users’ needs?
• How can Government best support varying groups and individuals who are taking the initiative for innovative schemes at community level across the country?
• Can Train to Gain by itself improve workplace-based training? Are there other ways of engaging employers? What is the role of the trade union movement?
• How can the UK deliver on social justice for all through better vocational education and training?
The event stimulated discussion around the following key areas that are testing all stakeholders engaged in skills development: the role vocational education and training can play in social improvement agendas, including the potential impact on crime and national health figures; how the UK can stay ahead of its international competitors through improved skills training; and, if targets around social and economic improvement are to be met, how perceptions of vocational education and training need to change so that it is no longer viewed as learning for the least academically able.
We are now inviting other stakeholders to participate in the debate on this forum, ahead of the release of a report from the roundtable event. |
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