Well! It’s now officially under a year before we open our Backstage Training Centre in Purfleet! An industry-standard one-of-a-kind building, this will make a huge impression on the skills landscape in the UK. I hope you’re as excited as we are?

Plenty has been happening backstage in the political world, too, with lots of consultations taking place or just completed. Last month, I mentioned a couple of opportunities to be part of these – thank you to everyone who submitted evidence. It’s important that we use our collective knowledge of this industry to ensure funds are distributed where they can do the most good.

Supporting Youth Employment

Most of us know by now that figures on youth unemployment are the highest since records began: just over 20% of those aged 16-25 are currently out of work. So it should come as no surprise that the Coalition have published a paper detailing what they intend to do about it.

Alongside measures like encouraging the public and private sector to offer more apprenticeships there is a proposal to instate ‘sector-based work academies’ in August this year.

Like many of you, I’ve had a very eventful month. The Skills Academy office has been incredibly busy – and we’ve all seen highs and lows as we continue to adjust to fast-changing financial times.

There have been a couple of interesting developments this month, with the government policies and papers flying about everywhere. But what do they mean for the sector? Here's my take on it...

The Wolf report

At the beginning of March, Alison Wolf released her report on vocational education, commissioned by the Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Its key recommendations were:

Policies and papers

It’s been a busy month here at the National Skills Academy and I’ve been travelling all over the country. Back in London, we’re all action stations for the big Industry Conference... but the papers and policies have still been coming in thick and fast.

The Localism Bill

In December 2010, Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, announced new policies on Localism with six key themes:

1.    Lift the burden of bureaucracy
2.    Empower communities to do things their way
3.    Increase local control of public finance
4.    Diversify the supply of public services
5.    Open up government to public scrutiny
6.    Strengthen accountability to local people

One of the services we’ll be providing to Industry Members is an update on any relevant national issues, whether they’re opportunities you can sign up for government policies that may affect your business or hot topics in our network.

Skills for Sustainable Growth