Why is there a need for growing collaboration between higher and further education in delivering the skills Britain needs?

This is a guest blog by Dr Shaid Mahmood, PVC-EDI at Durham University of Chair of the Association of Colleges

The new Labour government has set out ambitious plans for economic growth. Instrumental to the delivery of these ambitions will be ensuring a workforce equipped with the right skills. It’s a challenge that Further Education and Higher Education working collaboratively together in local learning alliances can rise to!

In a world where technology and innovation are developing at an increasingly fast pace, keeping up with the skills that are needed by businesses at all levels is critical. Making this a reality in the current educational landscape with the increasing financial challenges of the sector is often where the challenge lies.

Whilst universities and further education colleges appear to serve the same mission ends, they have been slow to adapt to working together to ensure that students of all ages and at all stages are being equipped with not only the skills they require today, but also anticipating together what skills might be needed in the future.

Through meaningful collaboration, educational providers can develop more coherent tertiary systems and start to dismantle the historic hierarchy that exists around certain types of qualification. They can open pathways for continued learning, showing alternative progression routes into further and higher education for those who might have assumed those pathways were out of reach to them.

Local learning alliances working closely with business and industry can help ensure the local workforce meets future skills needs as well as those of today. Providing for job security and career progression, contributing to increased productivity and leading to more inclusive growth and more resilient individuals and families able to achieve for themselves and make a difference to their communities.