Global Skills Spotlight: Events

Watch the recording of the online discussion and view the accompanying presentation.

“Thank you very much for the opportunity and looking forward to more of such engagements in the future.” Mr Mothusi Masole, Director, Funding, Human Resource Development Council, Botswana

The British Council was delighted to welcome policy makers and TVET leaders from different countries around the world to discuss their experience of implementing skills levies. Ensuring a sustainable funding model in a changing world means countries also need to review and adapt their skills levy systems. In this event we explored the common objectives of the skills levies in Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania and the prerequisites for their successful fulfilment. 

Specific questions included:  

• What skills levies are and the policy questions around them  
• Why use skills levies?​ 
• How can we best manage the inevitable challenges of skills levies?​ 
• Who pays? Who benefits? 

Event Contributors: 

• Chairs: Neil Shaw and Rossi Vogler (British Council)  
• Panel member: Simon Field, Sector Expert & Director of Skills Policy 
• Panel member: Robert Palmer, International Education and Skills Development Expert 
• Panel member: Mr Mothusi Masole, ​Director of HRDC Funding, Botswana  
• Panel member: Dr Harris Neeliah, Human Resource Development Council, Mauritius 

This online event drew from the British Council’s current research around Skills Levies conducted by Simon Field, allowing delegates to share their insights and question the panellists.  

“That was a very fruitful webinar.” Rendes Macario, TVET Consultant, Mozambique

The event focused on the experience of the above mentioned African countries, many of whom are currently undergoing a review of their skills levy systems. Similarly, the new Government in the UK has put an emphasis of reviewing the Apprenticeship Levy. 

You can read Simon Field’s blog about the UK Apprenticeship levy.  

Watch the recording of the online discussion here.

Event Contributors:

• Chair: Mohaned Agabeldour (British Council) 
• Panel member: John Mountford (British Council TVET Consultant)
• Panel member: Mattia Olivera, UNESCO
• Panel member: Maryam Gareinabi, Yousif Yahya, Savannah (Sudan)

During the event, we explored:

• The role of TVET in catalysing development
• How TVET can support different ambitions and priorities for government, business and society
• Whether in the short-term we need to choose which development priorities we aim for and if there are any trade offs to be made such as between quality and access?

This online event featured short summaries of projects and research to stimulate debate, allowing delegates to share their insights and question the panellists. You can also read John Mountford's blog  on the discussed topic.

Watch the recording of the online discussion here.

The British Council was delighted to welcome policy makers and TVET leaders from different countries around the world to discuss the role of TVET on delivering on green ambitions. The transition to green jobs in order to meet the climate targets discussed at COP26 meant that training and skills systems also need to adapt. In this event, we explored how TVET could respond to the emerging need for green skills and jobs and how training itself could be more environmentally efficient. We heard from the Education and Training Foundation on their work in supporting a greening of learning in training providers in England, and from partners in Nepal who shared their insights from the "Dakchyata: TVET Practical Partnership" project.

Specific topics included:

• How TVET can support the creation of new green jobs and industries?
• The role of retraining in improving environmental impact of existing occupations
• What steps TVET institutions themselves can take to ensure that they are as green as they can be?

This online event featured short summaries of projects and research to stimulate debate, allowing delegates to share their insights and questions the panellists. 

Event Contributors:

• Chair: Chris Cooper, Principal Consultant, British Council
• Panel member: Sangam Chalise, Project Manager UCEP (Underprivileged Children's Educational Programs), Nepal
• Panel member: Charlotte Bonner, National Head of Education for Sustainable Development, Education and Training Foundation, UK

Watch a recording of the event here.

The British Council welcomed policy makers and TVET leaders from over 15 countries around the world to reflect on the role and effectiveness of college governance. This is an area we have worked in for a number of years and we know colleges and their governing bodies are vital engines in driving improvements in skills and employment. The chair of this session, Simon Perryman, International TVET expert and Chair, Barnsley College welcomed delegates to the event and introduced our two contributors.

These were Professor Cate Watson who is professor of educational leadership and professional learning at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK and Louis van Niekerk who is a consultant and former principal of Cape Town College in South Africa.

The event topic was inspired by some research that was undertaken by the Universities of Stirling, Cardiff and Birmingham funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and entitled “Processes and practices of governing in colleges of further education in the UK”

Professor Watson started the event by outlining the findings of the research which you can also see summarised in a blog. Cate highlighted the tension that exists between a boards role monitoring and developing strategy; the importance of values as well as structures and how the processes and practices of effective governing were about modulating this distance between Board/Management in negotiating the contradictions and tensions in board roles.

We then heard from Louis van Niekerk who outlined the work he is doing in South Africa funded by the European Union and supported by the British Council in partnership with the Department for Higher Education and Training. Colleges and government are designing a Maturity Assessment Tool which will monitor their effectiveness. This shift is allied to the identification of practices of good governance and Louis noted that the shift to great institutional autonomy is about culture and context as much as it is about structures.

Further comments were made as the discussion widened, including that:

• Geography is an important factor to consider and we need to ensure the governance is tailored and shaped to the right level and locality
• That we need to understand that unchecked, autonomy may create winners and losers in the system and be prepared for the implications of that
• That there is a balance to be struck between support and challenge in governing bodies and the relationship between them and the executive is the key factor

There was broad consensus that governing bodies can be a powerful tool to support economic and social ambitions. This discussion was held as part of our Global Skills Spotlight community. 

On World Youth Skills Day the British Council were delighted to welcome policy makers and TVET leaders from over 15 countries around the world to discuss the challenge of creating effective careers pathways for learners. 

This topic is of key importance to TVET policy makers around the world and even more so with the rapid labour market shifts caused by technological, industrial and demographic change that have only been accelerated by the Covid pandemic.

We were delighted to be joined firstly from the UK by Mr Olly Newton and Dr Andrea Laczik from Edge, a UK Foundation that works to “Inspire the education system to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours all young people across the UK need to flourish in their future life and work”.  Our second contributor was Mr Khairul Azhar, Deputy Director of the National Youth Skills Institute, Malaysia who outlined the work his training institution have done to improve learner employment outcomes.

Olly and Andrea talked about some key UK initiatives to support learners’ choices including the Gatsby Benchmarks of good careers advice, embedding work experiences at all levels of education and connecting teachers with industry practice. Andrea also spoke about the National Software Academy and Edge Hotel School as illustrations of higher education provisions that have a strong focus on employability. You can read more about that here.

Mr Azhar, spoke about the work his institution have been doing to engage employers to close the gap between teaching and employment for learners. He spoke about some of the work they did in partnership with Coleg y Cymoedd as part of the I-WORK project. This has involved a range of activities to engage employers ranging from simple things like holding employer events in college to engaging on the substance of vocational programmes. Mr Azhar highlighted though that this was an organisational culture shift to engage more with employers rather than a series of individual initiatives and that he felt this was a key part of its success.

Further comments were made as the discussion widened, including:

• While what employers want is important, so is what learners want and we shouldn’t overlook this.
• That fewer, deeper relationships between employers and training providers might be more effective at addressing mismatches than lots of low friction interactions with multiple partners.
• For policy makers it isn’t enough to look at what the labour market needs now, they must look to shape the future skills needs as well and provide a range of learning options to support these.  If we plan for today, we’ll deliver for the past.
• That competition between institutions can aid responsiveness to labour market needs but can create short term imperatives for institutions that override long-term ambitions and policymakers need to consider this when shaping systems.

This discussion was held as part of our Global Skills Spotlight community.

The British Council were delighted to welcome policy makers and TVET leaders from around the world to share experiences of how international exchange is helping to address local and regional challenges. We were delighted to welcome representatives from DN Colleges Group, Empower Pragati and Edinburgh College to share their insights. Linda Sykes who represented DN Colleges Groups also set out some of her thoughts that informed this discussion in a blog that you can read here.

The event started with a welcome from the British Council’s Head of Internationalism, Julia Handelman-Smith who highlighted the importance of finding ways for internationalism to address real world issues and that there were some really good examples in FE and TVET that we hoped to learn from and support.

We then heard from Linda Sykes, International Co-ordinator, DN Colleges Group who spoke about how they have used internationalisation to raise aspirations, develop staff and identify new partnerships.  Linda said that ‘without doubt’ internationalisation had improved learner outcomes and had really benefitted the college, staff and local community. 

We were also very fortunate to be joined by Pritha Dutt from Empower Pragati, a private Training provider that work with marginalised groups of young people in India. Pritha spoke about the value of learning from other countries and peers overseas, both as motivation but also to provide inspiration for new innovations and solutions to difficult issues. She also spoke of the value of international exchange in helping the organisation aspire and differentiate itself in a competitive marketplace.  

Lastly we heard from Sarah Gore, International Business Manager, Edinburgh College. Sarah was representing not only her college who have a strong record of internationalism but the College Development Network in Scotland who have produced the International Ambitions Report. This report makes the case for the wider sectoral benefits of internationalising including the economic, cultural and quality improvement aspects that Scotland’s’ Colleges have identified and are seeking to capitalise on through increased international activity.

Further comments were made as the discussion widened, including that:

• The act of being curious and forming connections is of value in itself, regardless of the project
• Raising aspirations of learners, staff and local communities was cited by all participants as being a key strength of international collaboration.
• That contextual differences can be a strength in learning from others and when explaining how you operate to others from different places it helps you better understand your own approaches
• There was unanimous consensus that internationalism is a powerful tool to support institutional and local ambitions.   

This discussion was held as part of our Global Skills Spotlight community.

Watch the recording of the event here.

The British Council were delighted to welcome policy makers, leaders and TVET professionals from over 20 countries to reflect on the role of colleges and how they, and the systems they are part of, should adapt to meet the needs of the next century.  

Enhancing the effectiveness of all types of training provider is an essential component of modernising TVET but colleges often have a unique role as anchors in communities with a public mission. The chair of this session, Andy Hall, Senior Consultant, British Council reflected on the vast array of ambitions that colleges need to meet and that we needed to be careful we do not simply add extra responsibilities to colleges without the resources and frameworks to enable them to deliver.  We also noted that in deciding on the role of the college of the future we need to ensure this process does not become too prescriptive and top down and allows room for evolution and innovation.

We then heard from Lesley Giles, Director of Work Advance and Commissioner for the Independent Commission on the College of the Future. The Commission is a collection of colleges and stakeholders in the UK skills system who have collaborated across the four nations to set out a joint vision for the role of colleges. You can access their final report via their website. Lesley summarised their work and the final report which makes a series of recommendations including a statutory right to lifelong learning, supporting colleges ability to engage employers and emphasising collaboration, rather than competition between colleges. 

We were also fortunate to be joined by Dr Pham Vu Quoc Binh, Deputy Director General, Directorate of Vocational Education and Training, Vietnam. Dr Binh expanded on the work his department are doing to support the modernisation of colleges in Vietnam which includes reform of the National Qualifications Framework, moving to outcome-based college assessment and enabling colleges to be more autonomous. Dr Binh also elaborated on the importance of creating an enabling environment for colleges to thrive as a policy maker and the need for employers and colleges to actively participate in reform.

Further comments were made as the discussion widened, including that:

• Lifelong learning is often not given as much recognition and the impact of Covid and industrial change means we need to be careful to ensure consideration is given to retraining and colleges’ role in that
• That colleges are a first choice and a second chance for learners, and that one size does not fit all in shaping how they operate and deliver positive outcomes for different groups
• That employer engagement is vital, but we need to rethink how colleges engage to ensure they are not training for the jobs of yesterday and using old models that do not account sufficiently for new industries and MSMES
• That colleges are getting a lot right and we should not view them as a problem to be fixed but as really effective institutions that can be enabled further

This discussion was held as part of our Global Skills Spotlight community.  

Watch the recording of the event here.

The British Council were delighted to welcome policy makers and TVET leaders from over 15 countries around the world to reflect on the role and effectiveness of regional skills development. This is an area we have worked in for a number of years and we know regions are vital engines in driving improvements in skills and employment. The chair of this session, Chris Cooper, Principal Consultant, British Council set out some of the thoughts that informed this discussion and the lessons we have learned in a blog that you can read here.

The event started with a welcome from Chris highlighted the importance of the topic and some of the complexities. He pointed out that countries are increasingly looking to regions to take the lead in aspects of skills development and that there is much we can learn from how others have attempted this around the world. 

Chris also highlighted that despite many factors affecting the implementation of Skills Policy at a regional level including financial, legislative and political concerns, that culture and people were hugely important in the successful implementation of reform. 

We then heard from Al Mouzouni, Project Lead, British Council Morocco. Ali is leading on a current EU funded project which is supporting the devolution of powers of Skills Development to regions in Morocco and he set the context for this project. Ali explained that at the early stages of supporting regions as is the case in Morocco the confidence stakeholders have in regional systems is important as is a clear definition of roles and responsibilities.

We were also very fortunate to be joined by Seonag Campbell from Skills Development Scotland, whose remit is supporting Island communities. Scotland has a well-developed system of regional devolution and Seonag explained some of the key components of this including: understanding the needs of local industry, responding to key local issues such as depopulation and the integration with other economic and social ambitions. 

Further comments were made as the discussion widened, including that:

• Geography is an important factor to consider and we need to ensure the devolution is tailored and shaped to the right level and locality.
• That we need to understand that unchecked, devolution may create winners and losers in the system and be prepared for the implications of that.
• That many countries are looking to diversify economically and enabling regional autonomy is one way this can be achieved.
• That TVET is a mechanism to many ends and at a regional level it can sometimes be easier to join these agendas than nationally.

There was broad consensus that regional skills development can be a powerful tool to support economic and social ambitions. This discussion was held as part of our Global Skills Spotlight community.