The launch in April of the national Learning and Skills Council and its local counterparts represents a new phase in skills policy.
Expectations are high.
The Government has laid great emphasis on the tasks of closing the productivity gap with our competitors, promoting innovation, adapting to the demands of the knowledge-based economy and tackling social exclusion. Skills, Performance and Social Inclusion brings together experts at the forefont of applied research in skills policy and practitioners with experience of designing and implementing policy at national, regional and local levels. The conference will review the problems that policy is seeking to address, summarise the lessons that can be learned from the experience of past and current policies, and relate these to the experience of those now engaged in developing and implementing policy. Anyone involved in the design, implementation or evaluation of skills policy, or who wants to assess how skills policy could influence economic performance and social cohesion at national, regional or local levels. This includes policy advisers in the national and local Learning and Skills Councils, central government, RDAs, Government Offices and local authorities, NTOs, those involved in labour market research, human resource managers who want to refresh their understanding of the current policy debate, and analysts of business prospects in regional and local markets.