Trevor Carson, director of the Learning & Skills Development Agency NI and President of NI Chamber of Commerce Bro McFerran at the launch of 'The Improvement Agenda-International Symposium on Learning and Skills.'
Chamber President Highlights Importance of Upskilling at Symposium Launch
Bro McFerran CBE, President of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce, today launched the ‘The Improvement Agenda-International Symposium for Learning and Skills’. Organised by the Learning and Skills Development Agency the 2010 event will focus on examining ways to improve learning and skills in Northern Ireland.
Bro McFerran, President of Northern Ireland Chamber, Chair of Belfast Workforce Development Forum and Managing Director of Allstate Northern Ireland spoke about the vital importance of upskilling people in his industry, where technology is constantly changing. He said:
“I am delighted to be launching LSDA’s International Symposium today and I believe that the theme is particularly suitable, given that learning and skills are fundamental to the local economy’s long-term success. The Northern Ireland Executive recognises that without a highly skilled and engaged workforce, Northern Ireland just cannot hope to compete and win in national and international markets.
“Through my role at Allstate and on the Workforce Development Forum I have worked to help ensure that the skills of IT graduates and employees meet the technology needs of IT companies in Northern Ireland. I wholly endorse LSDA’s ‘Lecturers Into Industry’ scheme and believe that if the colleges here have the ability to be agile, then we can seize opportunities when they present themselves, such as, new IT companies setting up in Belfast. If we can encourage people to take up STEM courses, enable the FE and HE sectors to be agile and use the ‘Lecturers into Industry’ scheme then we are definitely on the track to success.”
Delegates due to attend the symposium next April include a European study trip looking at leadership in vocational education, with representatives from Iceland, Spain, Germany, Holland, Finland, Romania, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, France, the Czech Republic and Turkey.
Trevor Carson, Director of LSDA NI said:
“We want to use the symposium as an opportunity to highlight examples of best practice in improving learning and skills from around the world and how Northern Ireland can learn from these. In advance of the event we will be calling on key international and local experts to put forward papers on improvements in learning and skills. We will then give authors of those papers an opportunity to speak at the event, highlighting their findings and making recommendations.
“We are currently in the process of lining up some high profile international speakers from Europe and beyond and at this early stage we have lined up Canadian Jo Richler, Advisor for HE in FE at the Higher Education Academy and Professor Frank Coffield from the Institute of Education at the University of London. We are also delighted to confirm that City and Guilds will be the principal sponsor of this Symposium and LSDA’s annual conference in 2011 and 2012.
“Next year’s symposium will look at everything from maximising learning from good practice, teaching and learning at the centre of the improvement agenda; technology supporting teaching and learning; a curriculum for learning and skills improvement; improvement in the work-based learning sector; and the strategic management of improvement.”
The symposium, which is LSDA’s seventh annual conference, will take place on 21st April 2010 at Galgorm Resort and Spa in Ballymena. To find out more information about the conference please contact Emma Heron at LSDA NI on 028 9044 7700.
