The challenges facing a national employer

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The challenges facing a national employer

• Phil Harrison
• Chief Executive

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Key questions

• What does a national employer want?
• Are you sure?
• Is your view based on in depth research?
• Do you understand their needs and their
  solutions?
• Do you sell what you make rather than make what
  you sell?
• Assumptions or facts?

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What qualifies me to speak to you?

• National business
• 50m
• 150 employees
• 100,000 associate workers
• Major national companies
• Tetley Tea
• Currys
• PC World
• Allied Carpets
• CRM Consultancy

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The world today

• 21 ratio
• 6 million adults no basic skills
• Only 3 million jobs available
• 2020 only ½ million jobs like this
• Skills a minimum
• But what skills
• Define skills

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FE today

• Improved quality
• More employer engagement
• Major reforms
• Key aim
• Skills for
• productive, sustainable employment

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Challenge for adult skills

• A low 18th out of 30
• Therefore
• Reduce by 40 adults without L2 by 2010
• Improve basic skills of 2.25m adults by 2010
• SO WHAT?
• Is this what employers want?

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Employers challenges

• Skilled workforce to match commercial need
• Overcoming shortages in their business area
• Identifying understanding what qualifications
  mean what
• How to identify the right partner/solution.

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1st message

• Understand your customer
• Talk in their language
• Their needs your solutions result
• Avoid The land of assumptions
• Find out what the catalyst for demand is

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The Future

• Historically
• Caring nurturing the learner
• Now
• Employer in between
• Business
• Profit
• Shareholders
• Customers
• Staff with right skill for the business

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Delivering to an employer

• Have you got the infrastructure for national
  delivery?
• Protocol National
• 200 colleges
• Adult ed to WBL
• Listen, learn, test, implement
• 100,000 people
• Captive audience
• BUT..

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Employer engagement

• No organisation approaches us
• Issue with SIC code data
• Less than 5,000 employees
• NES not interested
• Inappropriate qualifications
• Focus on bottom end not business needs
• Funding restricted
• Good to Great or Poor to OK?

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3rd message

• Quality
• Consistency
• Nationally
• Awarding bodies no uniformity
• Delivery standards common no
• To operate on the national stage new approaches
  needed

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The solution?

• Forget national employers
• Operate in SMEs
• Free is more appealing
• Resources at a premium
• Flexibility required
• Time of day
• Day of week

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Summary

• Demand led means new approach
• Understand your customer
• Communicate in their language
• Teach the teachers funding required
• National employers need consistency quality
• National employers need solutions outside of your
  box

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Finally

• FE makes a difference
• FE can engage with employers it has dealt with
  change constantly
• Business is not something to resent
• Partnership is key
• Do what you do best so they can do what they do
  best.

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And consider the challenges of others.