Sixth International Conference on Employer Engagement: Preparing Young People for the Future – One Year to go
Education and Employers and the Edge Foundation are excited to announce an event to look forward to in Summer 2021 – our Sixth International Conference on Employer Engagement.
Taking place on 1st and 2nd July 2021 at Westminster Kingsway College, this event will bring together hundreds of researchers and practitioners from across the world to discuss how we can prepare young people for the rapidly changing world of work.
There has never been a more important time to focus in on this topic, so we would love to see you at next year’s event. You can find out more, respond to our call for papers and book tickets here.
Reflecting on our last conference in 2018, Professor Kevin Orr from Huddersfield University’s Centre for Research in Education and Society, one of our keynote speakers, said:
The International Conference on Employer Engagement in Education and Training in 2018 provided an all too rare opportunity for researchers, practitioners and policymakers to discuss common issues together. The wide range of presenters and speakers allowed refreshingly candid and focused discussions about the future of work and learning and so I very much look forward to the next one in 2021!
Participants and speakers have made fantastic connections at past events, as Susan McGrath from UCL Institute of Education reflects:
The sessions I attended achieved a perfect mix of practitioners and researchers, and the presence of employer bodies and policy makers gave a real sense of ‘something happening’. The Q&A following my own presentation was particularly useful because it reflected this broad mix of delegates and offered a fresh perspective on my work. It also resulted directly in a contract that kick-started our new social enterprise, UP2UNI. The 2021 conference is already in my diary!
The conference also provides a friendly and positive opportunity for early career researchers to present, as Carmen Nicoara, PhD candidate at Kings College London, found:
The 5th International Conference on Employer Engagement in Education and Training (2018) was the first conference I ever presented my PhD topic at. Early in my PhD at the time, I found the experience to be formative in my development as a researcher. I was exposed to a great mix of policy makers, researchers, and practitioners, some of who I still keep in contact with and have actually interviewed in my own research. The support I received from Edge was incredibly helpful, from sharing tips on how to improve my presentation, to being my friendly faces on the day of the conference who cheered an anxious PhD student up. I am very thankful to have been given this opportunity early in my PhD, and look forward to the next conference in 2021.
We know that the next Conference in summer 2021 will be a much needed opportunity to bring this dynamic community of researchers and practitioners back together after a challenging 2020. We can’t wait to see you there.
Find out more, submit a paper and book your tickets at https://www.educationandemployers.org/research/employer-engagement-preparing-young-people-for-the-future/.