What should businesses and schools be doing now to bridge the gap between school and work to ensure a local, skilled and relevant workforce?

Facilitators: Sam Holliday (Federation of Small Businesses)
Becca Thurston (Business West)

KEY POINTS: TABLE 5

Educating parents – apprenticeships have changed and are a genuine alternative.

Educating the educators – schools need to be more pro-active about non-academic routes. Need a national debate on best time to talk careers and structure of education.

Educating businesses – why train for others’ benefit? Can we incentivize them more?

KEY POINTS: TABLE 6

Building on good practice i.e. Ambitions event.  Structured and valuable work experience.

Communication – businesses to education: education to businesses: both to government – Simplicity

Need to use technology – using what we’ve got differently