FE +Skills Collective Reflective- Bridging Policy and Pedagogy
Yesterday, 10th October 2024, was one of those days when you realise… yep, this is why I do what I do.
The FE + Skills Collective – Bridging Policy and Pedagogy was a gathering of those passionate for the future of Further Education and Skills, with 90 professionals across the Skills ecosystem coming together to share in deep thinking and collaborative working on how we Bridge Policy and Pedagogy.. and how we equip both our educators and leaders for a stronger skills system. This was a FE News and Education and Training Foundation partnership. I was blown away by the energy and real passion to come up with solutions, action points and collaborative working to bridge Skills Policy and Pedagogy.
So I wanted to do a bit of an instant Gavin reflective on the day.. (he says drinking coffee out of a Collective mug and in my FE + Skills Collective polo)… the fact is this morning, there are 90 reflectives from our collective experiences and this is only the beginning. The whole point of the day and the Collective was to help Dr Vikki Smith from ETF and Ben Rowland from AELP help shape a report to support our educators and leaders for a stronger skills system.
Deep thinking and Passion to be able to make a difference
If you were not there. The point of the Collective was to bring together a gathering of deep thinkers, maverick minds and those with deep experience and passion for the sector together to share their collective intelligence on how to support our educators and leaders. The format of the day was in the morning:
Scene Setting with different expert panel members
Then into the afternoon, people were broken up into small working groups to work on set questions and work around the FE + Skills Collective matrix.. to help us move from opportunities and challenge.. but into solutions and action points for the report.
Wow, what a day. What epic networking and people from different parts of the skills eco-system coming together.
I am not going to take away anything from the report (or do any spoliers)… as there were soooo many cool points, action points, suggestions that are going into this report.
First panel was looking at Localised Decision making for a stronger skills system… and what a panel chaired by Dr Vikki Smith from ETF, who was joined by Sally Alexander from Milton Keynes, Kate Shoesmith from REC, Yusuf Ibrahim from Cardiff and Vale and Eddie Playfair from AoC.
The Dr Katerina Kolyva from ETF chaired a brilliant National decision making panel.
Katerina was joined by Ben Blackledge from WorldSkills UK, Philip Le Fleur from NCFE… but unfortunately Stephen Evans from Learning & Work and Anna Ambrose from IPPR were both ill in the morning (we are in October)..
I had an unique opportunity to feel like a manager for Real Madrid!
I had this unique opportunity to suddenly feel like a manager of Real Madrid… the depth of talent, expertise, the skills super stars in the Collective just blew me away. Now it was a real shame about Stephen and Anna not being able to make it last minute, what can you do?…. but as I heard… I was like oh no… I was at the front of the auditorium near the stage… and I turned around and looked at all these faces… all these people totally up for it, sitting in the auditorium… and it hit me, and I was like oh my life, look at this, this is epic.
So feeling like a Real Madrid Manager, with an epic depth of super star squad available, Ben Rowland from AELP and Olly Newton from Edge stepped up last minute to join the National panel debate… and it was like watching Real Madrid… oh my life, what a session and we were talking about agile and flexible skills systems to meet our needs. This was living it.
I loved it.
IfATE Bill
Literally the afternoon before the IfATE Bill was introduced into the House of Lords… and Katerina had an epic Q&A with Jennifer Coupland and Jennifer opened this up to the Collective… and stayed and worked in a cool Collective working group in the afternoon. Which was one of the best Q&As, I’ve ever seen (and I have seen a few in 21 years of being at FE News)!
Collective Intelligence
Then we broke into small working groups, two facilitators per group. This is the Collective Intelligence part of the Collective.
Paul Grainger and Dr Katerina Kolyva looked after the Local, National and Global Skills Collective group
Chris Cherry and Olly Newton looked after the Skills and Employability plans – fuel the industrial strategy Collective group
Matt O’Leary and Dr Vikki Smith looked after the Role of high quality teaching in delivering the skills of today and tomorrow Collective group
Dr Lou Mycroft and Paul Tully looked after the Challenges of Dual Professionalism
Holly Papworth and Suzie Branch Haddow looked after the Employability, Social Mobility and Growth Collective Group.
Then we had a mass instant Collective reflective from the lead facilitators… which raised a load of common themes, inter-connectivity and inter-disciplinary came up across several groups, (who were looking at different themes), a need for collaboration and additional support, raising professionalism, but in a system that is set up and driven by competition and driven by funding. This is going to be a great report.
At such an interesting time, when Skills England is being shaped.
Living it
Talk is cheap, living it, is the real deal.
Now, when you work on something for months… as a concept, in partnership with different people, not knowing what the outcome is going to be, but setting up the environment to make the magic happen … I must give a massive, massive shout out to ETF for being an epic partner to bring this together, to Katerina, to Vikki, but also Ania and Sofia… this wouldn’t have happened without you!
Team FE News… Danny, mate, you smashed it… the graphics, the vibe of the building, the details, the little things that make it safe, comfortable, collaborative, we were asking people to be brave and developing trust… NAILED IT! … the vibes were unbelievable, the collaborative working, the old and new friendships. I am so pleased and privileged to be a part of this.
A movement of like minded experts
This felt like a movement of like minded experts, passionate about making a difference to other leaders, to other educators to support learners, employers, to support the industrial strategy and the mission led approach from the new Government. It felt like we were on a real mission and everyone collaborating, working together, it was humbling, inspiring and PROPER COOL! Collective crew, you should be proud of how the great and the good came together.
….but it isn’t over.
There is going to much more of a legacy than a few pics on LinkedIn, or drinking out of a cool Collective mug.
As we speak Vikki Smith, Ben Rowland (talk about continuing the collaborative working), are gathering the findings, the data, the scribes notes, the lead facilitators feedback… to form on a collaborative .. and the Collective solution and action led report… and they want to move quickly.
So watch this space for the report.
In the meantime, we will keep the momentum alive. I talked about collaborative working, Edge Foundation were amazing. They were the FE + Skills Collective Media Sponsor, so from next week we will be able to share the morning sessions from the Collective with you on FE News.
Then we will have VoxPops (talking head) videos with different people who were involved in the Collective to keep everything moving forward… momentum is key, then we have the report.
Behind the scenes, we are preparing the ground, trying to prep hearts and minds, not just of the usual suspects, but we are thinking big, international and looking for this Collective report, all those individual ideas, vision and dreams to make impactful change.
We are trying to give it justice to the effort and passion that went in. Now from the get go of the FE + Skills Collective, I said we don’t have this cracked, we are innovating, so that means we have full permission to make mistakes, learn, fail fast, any question is okay… we will do our best to distill down 80-90 voices into a report. Two or three voices into a report is hard. 80-90, is kind of difficult… but we are trying. We are building on the first Collective, we are learning, trying to live by a continuous improvement strategy, we are looking at lessons learnt from the day, how can we help everyone have a voice, how can we continuously improve networking and encourage collaborative working. So this project of the Collective is also not done and dusted. We are just getting started as well! There is power and passion in bringing the different parts of the sector together.
Massive thank you to all of the Collective crew. You showed up, not just in person, but you left your ego at the door, you rolled your sleeves up, you got involved, without trying to sound a bit ‘jazz club’ the vibes were off the chart, just stepping back and looking at everyone working together. Every working group was managed differently.
Trust and Autonomy
Trust and autonomy came up over and over again at this Collective. We trusted each facilitator, gave them full autonomy and it proves if you give trust and autonomy to professionals, trust them to get on with it… you get results!
I never thought I’d get to feel like a Real Madrid Manager, I’d have settled with Spurs Manager… but I got to appreciate just how epic is the depth and breadth of experience of the Collective when we had what should have been an absolute nightmare situation with people last minute ill, trains delayed… and it was all epically cool. People just stepped up.. got involved in the project, all for the common good of the sector and the Collective. Thank you! Thank you! Agile, flexible skills system, the Collective lived it and I loved just seeing a microcosm of the Collective living this out.
So watch this space. The 10th October FE + Skills Collective may now be concluded, but the work of the Collective has only just begun!
by Gavin O’Meara, CEO and Founder of FE News and FE Careers…. and very proud and privileged to be a part of the FE + Skills Collective
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