Helping Londoners into Good Work

The problem is in the title - sector skills. I dont know a sector that has specific sector skills anymore. With the introduction of technology and the pace of change, the only skill that remains consistent is the ability to be able to keep learning, to know how to access resources and to be able retrain to perform a meaningful role. The single biggest contribution the public sector and government to do to drive better quality contribution from workers is to reduce the cost of training, learning and accessing information, for all, not just undergraduates. I dont think there is anything as a job any more - but more of a portfolio career with individuals having multiple roles or in some cases operating like a business themselves with multiple clients. Companies are not looking for employees, but good quality output and delivery - regardless of whether this is provided by machines, individuals in the UK or overseas.

The pandemic has made it clear that the location of the worker no longer matters and with companies adopting to remote work, they are actively looking for the best quality output at the most cost efficient price.

It would be interesting to see how a digital society could offer new training systems approach to youngsters and adults so we fit within the era of tomorrow. I m thinking of robotisation/data scientists/Artificial intelligence/ digital industries....if this meant to be the future, let's all go towards it... people are Looking forward to achieve fantastic things if it's given the keys and paths towards it.

Social skills and honesty are vital, especially regarding transparency and integrity. The high number of financial frauds that have occurred since 2008, via the City of London, clearly show where faked values reside. Transparency Task Force now shining lights on so many anomalies in financial services, London needs more people like those involved in 'TTF' - don't risk London being turned into a sewer of rip-off merchants and bring back the decency that should be present in investments and financial services. What's the point in teaching anyone to get smart and earn this or that, if somewhere down the line something sinister in the system is going to deplete them of all they've worked for (or inherited, in which case their benefactors)?

If you really want to change people's educational outcomes we need to dump two-tier education get rid of Eton et al and all these fake charity schools and give everyone access to fair and successful bespoke education that meets the needs of the learner rather than the learning meeting the needs of the education.

We also need more education that develops critical thinking rather than passive acceptance.

It's just another "phrase"... I'd like to see kids attend forest schools until age 7, more vocational education not just this ridiculous focus on "academia" it's so outdated and exclusive to dyslexics and others who don't "fit the mold' and then you end up treating the cause... Apart from learning to read, which I could do by age 7, I've no idea what school was for I learned more by doing things, I've used nothing I learned at school in my adult life.

Travelling, volunteering, developing an understanding of the self.
Developing analytical thinking, learning forward planning I learned myself through my life... I think people should go to forest school to develop a strong relation with nature and at age 7/8 learn basics, then around 9/10 undertake tests in mental and physical skills.. academia and art, woodwork/metalwork, dance, acting, singing, etc to see what kids are most good at, then their education should be based on their strengths. Personally I hated school, it was like a living hell, torture that I had to endure for 10 years so I'm ambivalent towards formal education. I think people should undertake personal development skills, but school is only about creating a group of people who will support the blind continuation of capitalism, school is only about work and this is where we go wrong. It should always only ever be about personal development education to maximise the potential of each Individual. For example I'm naturally skilled at logistics, grant writing, setting up successful community projects, running them... But I'm useless at work. I found my strength as I walked through my life but our period of learning should have helped.

It sounds like an academy that will teacher skills for a specific sector, for example, catering and hospitality or other areas where we have surplus of jobs. They seems useful in principle, but only if the public understand them and they are joined up with other offers, such as apprenticeships (what’s the difference), traineeships, NVQs, adult learning, FE, HE, etc. It is very confusing for people to work out what the different things mean, what the different values to them are. We need a clear map of how things tie in with each other. When people have this information they’ll be better able to recommend stuff to their children, young people, friends who have been made redundant, etc. Right now, it’s a proper mess, the funding and fees are different for everything, eligibility is unclear and the national careers service is as confused as everyone else.

This reminds me of the Careers Colleges that were set up a number of years ago. https://www.careercolleges.org.uk - I think skills academies are a good idea but need strong commitment, buy in and partnership working with industry.

Also they need to work in partnership with existing training providers and FE /HE institutions. A big question is how these will be different from existing provision and also how are they going to be funded.

If skills academies are created, they need not only to offer skills courses, but shorter drop-in style training for those who may not want to or cannot commit to something longer (perhaps something that takes place over just one weekend - akin to a taster course). The academies themselves should also combine a range of civic provisions like libraries, internet access and even gym access to all members of the local community.

A sector skills academy, idealistically, seems like a good idea, but reminds me of many of the NVQs that we have had and discarded in the past - NVQs lacking actual jobs. I believe that we need to create a surplus of relevant jobs before a specific strand of training is devised. It is often suggested that our schools are preparing our children for a jobs market we are not aware of as yet. Alas, in the work place, our primary objective seem to be profit for shareholders (and large wages for executives) understandably based on the overriding self serving nature of our conditioned, thought process.

Subjectively speaking, different forms of governance is required: wellbeing before GDP perhaps; different financial models considering the idea of a tax-less society where the government accepts the idea that it controls the creation and distribution of money (be it digital or not) and so is theoretically never in debt. It could be a cyclical, international system where the ruling authority will be able to see the flow of currency at every transactional stage.