Bringing the Learning Home provides invaluable networking opportunities, and acts as a springboard to the further development of international partnerships."
(Ilham Nasser Al Maskari, Coordinator, Higher College of Technology, Oman)
Bringing the Learning Home is British Council’s annual International Skills Partnerships Seminar.
Alternating between the UK and major international cities, it is designed for our established international partnerships and other organisations from around the world interested in addressing skill challenges through international collaboration.
The event includes inspiring plenary presentations, interactive capacity-building workshops and outstanding international networking opportunities. It also sees the announcement of a global call for new partnerships, and the unveiling of our International Skills Partnerships Awards.
Bringing the Learning Home 2016
Bringing the Learning Home, the British Council’s annual flagship skills event, took place in Amman, Jordan on 28-29 November. More than sixty skills experts and practitioners from around the world were gathered together for a stimulating and inspirational programme of discussions and interactive workshops. The seminar provided a platform for forging new relationships, enhancing existing projects, and celebrating successful international collaboration. This year, the programme explored the following theme: building the resilience of young people by enhancing their employability – a topic of relevance for all the participants.
International Skills Partnerships are funded and supported by the British Council to facilitate cost-effective ways of transforming vocational education systems through projects developed by the UK and overseas institutions. Bringing the Learning Home unites representatives from these projects and launches opportunities for new partnerships.
Bringing the Learning Home has left me with no question unanswered and most motivated and inspired. It has reminded me our projects are not alone but part of a network through which there are endless opportunities to engage and collaborate. I’m also now focused on wider and important outcomes around resilience and reducing the skills gap.
(Bringing the Learning Home 2016 Delegate)
This year’s event was attended by delegates from Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, South Africa and the UK. Attendees shared innovative practice and explored how best to prepare the future workforce. The programme included a visit to the Jordan Applied University College of Hospitality and Tourism Education and the delegates had the opportunity to work together, and with the British Council, to further develop current projects and lay the foundations for future international work.
The seminar concluded with the International Skills Partnerships Awards Dinner, a celebration of particularly successful projects. This year, achievement was recognised in three categories: Innovation within the Project Proposal, Creating Positive Change for Young People, and Sustainable Collaboration. A partnership between Westminster Kingsway College and the Multidisciplinary College in Kazakhstan was awarded the prize for the first category, while the second was received by West Lothian College, Coleg Gwent, Coleg y Cymoedd, BAYTI and AIDA; this consortium of organisations recently completed an outstanding project in Morocco. The final award was presented to a project currently being carried out by Canterbury College, Maluti TVET College and Flavius Mareka TVET College in South Africa.
Following the seminar, the impact of the relationships forged and collaborative projects developed will continue to address skills challenges and enhance the employability of young people.
Photographs from Bringing the Learning Home 2016 can be found here.
Bringing the Learning Home 2015
The largest Bringing the Learning Home Seminar to be held in the United Kingdom took place on 17-20 November in Birmingham. One hundred and thirty delegates from more than 20 countries took part in the seventh annual seminar, which brings together representatives from industry, education and government to consider how international collaboration can deliver maximum impact for each country’s current and future workforce.
Brian Wilson from the British Council said: “This year’s event included presentations from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, the Skills Funding Agency, Oracle and Walsall College. It provided a showcase for the UK skills system and offered delegates the opportunity to share successful international initiatives and best practice. We also supported the Skills Show 2015, the UK’s largest skills and career event, organised by Find a Future.”
An Awards Celebration Dinner, hosted by students and staff at Dudley College, recognised world class performance. The Best New Partnership of the Year award was awarded to a partnership between Dudley College and Elangeni TVET College, South Africa. The prestigious International Skills Partnership of the Year award was won by a partnership between Proskills UK and Viglacera Corporation, Vietnam.
Delegates also took part in visits to outstanding colleges, Dudley and Walsall College, and world class employers such as Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls Royce, where they had a chance to experience first-hand high quality teaching and training, quality assurance models and apprenticeship schemes.
Photographs from Bringing the Learning Home 2015 can be found here.