Skills Conference

Making sense of it all - Skills Conference for the Voluntary and Community Sector

“Excellent and informative event” is how the Skills Conference on 31 May in NICVA was described. Others commented that it provided a “valuable opportunity to network” and “a better understanding of the work of sector skills councils”.

Úna McKernan, Director Corporate Services NICVA, opened the conference by welcoming the delegates and encouraging them to engage with the support systems that exist for skills development. She described the key drivers such as Investing together, Positive steps and the DEL Skills Strategy, highlighting the need for a strategic approach and the need to secure funding for skills development in the sector.

Laurence Downey from the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) (www.ssda.org.uk) then took to the floor describing the Skills for Business Network as the “Employers’ voice in skills development”. He explained that the Skills for Business network comprised the Sector Skills Councils (SSC) and the SSDA and its job is to tackle skills gaps and shortages – a daunting task! He went on to list the 25 SSC's and explain that sector skills agreements were being developed to “ensure that the skills the sector needs are the skills the sector gets”

Úna then returned to give an overview of the work of the UK Workforce Hub, which exists to link our sector to the appropriate sector skills councils, or if none exist, to work with SSDA to represent their interests. She also highlighted the 13 SSC's with a key presence in the sector:

Asset Skills
(www.assetskills.org)

Creative & Cultural Skills
(www.ccskills.org.uk)

e-skills UK
(www.e-skills.com)

GoSkills
(www.goskills.org)

Improve Ltd
(www.improveltd.co.uk)

Lifelong Learning UK
(www.lifelonglearninguk.org)

People 1^st
(www.people1st.co.uk)

Skills for Care & Development
(www.skillsforcareanddevelopment.org.uk)

Skills for Health
(www.skillsforhealth.org.uk)

Skills for Justice
(www.skillsforjustice.com)

SkillsActive
(www.skillsactive.com)

Skillset
(www.skillset.org)

Skillsmart Retail
(www.skillsmartretail.com)

Alan Clarke from Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) then gave an engaging presentation which gave the delegates a clear picture of what LLUK does and who they work with. He emphasised opportunities for the sector to get involved and to shape the work of LLUK and encouraged the delegates to contribute. Alan then spent some time on the national occupational standards presenting how they can be used for recruitment and selection, performance management as well as learning and development and benchmarking.

Siobhan Weir, NI Manager for SkillsActive gave a second example of a SSC and what their role is. She commented that “one of our biggest challenges is actually measuring our footprint” in that they cannot say for certain how many staff or volunteers are in the SkillsActive sector. Siobhan summarised the SSCs role as: People, Productivity, Provision and Promotion, and then pointed out that there was a network of stakeholders, a steering group and training providers who helped to fulfil this role.

After a coffee break the delegates participated in one of two workshops. One of the workshops was facilitated by representatives from the sector skills councils on How you can benefit from the Sector Skills Councils. The other one was entitled Management and leadership strategy for the sector and Bill Manson from The Management and Leadership network (www.mln.org.uk) facilitated it. The afternoon workshops were Using the Trustee National Occupational Standards facilitated by Linda Laurence from the UK Workforce Hub (www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk); and how to invest in your people facilitated by Brendan Boyle, Investors in People Quality Centre (www.investorsinpeople.co.uk).

The conference ended on a high with input from Aideen McGinley, Permanent Secretary DEL (www.delni.gov.uk). Aideen started by saying that in many ways government was already working very closely with the sector, for example ion Job Skills, and essential skills with organisations such as NAICRO, EGSA and MENCAP. She then moved on to comment on what could be improved in order to make it a level playing field so that the voluntary and community sector could complete with the private and public sector.

The Success through Skills strategy document which all of the delegates received “makes a lot of sense” she said. The four main themes were mentioned as: Understanding demand, improving skills levels of the workforce, improving the quality and relevance of training and tackling the barriers to employment and employability. “Through the implementation of this strategy there is an unprecedented opportunity to affect the skills agenda”.

As she concluded she noted the challenges that face the sector such as sustainability, accountability and accessibility. She encouraged the audience to take risks saying To end she emphasised the importance of us being accessible to the communities in which we work, and DEL being accessible to us as a sector.