ASDAN Employment and Skills Forum Launch

The ASDAN Employment and Skills Forum launch took place on Monday 28th March at the House of Lords.

Hosted by Baroness Walmsley, the event brought more than 80 education and business leaders together to discuss ways to address the skills gap for those moving from education into employment.

The Importance of the Skills Agenda

This event is part of the expanding ASDAN employability initiative to support the Government agenda following the Wolf report focus on the significance of general and employability skills.

Read the ASDAN response to the Wolf Report.

The Launch Event

The Employment and Skills Forum launch event generated some great discussions and ideas, which were echoed in the contributions from the guest speakers.

Baroness Walmsley spoke with enthusiasm and energy about what ASDAN represents and helps learners to achieve, and about the importance of addressing the skills gap.

Tony Ryan, headteacher at Chiswick Community School, described how ASDAN has resurrected the enthusiasm of learners in his school, and Danielle Wilson, a former CoPE student, outlined how her experience has gained her a place at university, an internship with Fujitsu and, subsequently, a job with the same company.

Andy Woods-Ballard, from Global Vision International, explained how the ASDAN Employability Level 3 qualification is helping interns abroad gain a qualification while learning their craft. GVI staff are also following the same programme internally. Finally, Kim Rutherford from Reed Employment outlined how the Employability qualifications have helped them in getting the long-term unemployed back into work.

Support from Sir Tim Brighouse

Commenting on the Employment and Skills Forum Launch, former London Commissioner for Schools Sir Tim Brighouse, said:

"For many years now ASDAN learning and employability qualifications and support programmes have assisted young people to develop exactly the sort of skills sought by employers and also by higher education selectors in Universities. They are also the self-same general and employability skills recently highlighted by Alison Wolf in her Review of Vocational Education to whose agenda ASDAN is especially fit to assist."