The point of partnership: understanding employer engagement in education
University of Warwick, 15th October
Watch Dr Anthony Mann talk about the objectives of the conference
About the conference
Keynote speakers:
Prof. Hugh Lauder
University of Bath, Editor of the Journal of Education and Work
Hans van der Loo
Vice President, European Union Liaison, Shell International
The inaugural research conference sponsored by the Education and Employers Taskforce and its partners addressed key questions as part of its remit to better understand employer engagement with education. The conference brought together leading researchers from a wide range of disciplines in order to better understand the impact of partnerships between schools/colleges and their economic community.
The Journal of Education and Work will dedicate a special edition of the journal to the conference.
About the keynote speakers
Prof. Hugh Lauder
Professor of Education and Political Economy, University of Bath; Head of Policy and Management Research Group
Editor, The Journal of Education and Work: a major international forum for academic research and policy analysis which focuses on the interplay of the education and economic systems.
Selected publications:
- The Global Auction: The broken promises of education, jobs, and incomes, Oxford University Press, forthcoming (with Philip Brown and David Ashton)
- Educational theories, cultures and learning: A critical perspective, Routledge, 2009 (with Harry Daniels and Jill Porter, eds)
- Knowledge, values and educational policy: A critical perspective. London: Routledge. 2009. (with Harry Daniels and Jill Porter, eds)
- The Routledge Companion to Education, Routledge, 2008 (with Harry Daniels and Jill Porter, eds)
- Education, Globalization, and Social Change, Oxford University Press, 2006 Lauder, (with Philip Brown, Jo-Anne Dillabough & A.H. Halsey, eds)
Hans van der Loo
Vice President, European Union Liaison, Shell International
Hans will speak on talent as a strategic resource, and the urgent need for employers to work with governments, schools, colleges and universities to secure Europe’s future prosperity.
Over recent years, with his colleagues in the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT), Hans has played an influential role in strengthening the evidence base on strategic skills shortages in Europe, particularly in the STEM subjects, and the importance of business-schools links as a means of securing the human resource essential to Europe’s future prosperity.
The work of the ERT has driven the commitment in the EU’s recently adopted Europe 2020 Strategy to provide active encouragement to member states to support closer working between schools and employers. The ERT proposal for a European Co-ordinating Body to help co-ordinate, leverage and build upon school-business partnerships across Europe has been adopted by the EU and the Body is due to launch in January 2011.
Hans was also a key contributor to the 2009 report Providing The Skills For An Innovative And Sustainable Europe by the eLab team at INSEAD, lead by Dr Bruno Lanvin and Dr Nils Fonstad
About the venue
The Conference was held at the campus of the University of Warwick, in the Conference Park.
About the Education and Employers Taskforce
The Taskforce’s vision is to ensure that every school and college has an effective partnership with employers to provide its young people with the inspiration, motivation, knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to help them achieve their potential and so to secure the UK’s future prosperity. The Taskforce is an independent charity. It brings together leading partners from the worlds of education and employment. Read more about the Taskforce.
The conference was overseen by the Taskforce’s Expert Working Group on Research, which helps the Taskforce to investigate what an “effective partnership” actually consists of, bringing together leading academics, analysts and policy officials. With support from Edcoms, the Working Group oversaw development and publication of a synthesis of recent research on the benefits of education-employer collaboration, entitled What is to be gained through partnership?