The National Skills Forum is a not-for-profit membership organisation which works in partnership with the Associate Parliamentary Skills Group (APSG) and the Skills Commission to raise the profile and status of skills in the UK. We bring together Parliament, business and the skills sector to promote and develop effective skills policy as a central means of personal and economic development for the 21st Century.

Research and Publications

Open to Ideas: Essays on Education and Skills

The National Skills Forum and Associate Parliamentary Skills Group has published a collection of essays on education and skills policy.

In Open to Ideas we have brought together people who have something to say about the big issues facing the education sector. They question common assumptions, identify lessons learned from recent policy experiments and innovations, and suggest new approaches to policy and practice.

Read the collection

Skills Commission inquiry report published

The Skills Commission have launched Technicans and Progression, the final report of a six-month inquiry into technician and higher-level skills.

Read more

More Research

Upcoming Events

Education as a commodity; Buying, selling, and making money out of education and skills

12 June 2012, 4-6pm

Could the profit motive help us to solve policy problems in education and skills? And what consequences might the extension of profit-making in education have for learners, providers, and society?

As part of its Future Skills seminar series, the Associate Parliamentary Skills Group will be holding a seminar to consider what impact for-profit forces are already having in the education system, and what role they might play in the future.

For more information, contact helena.see@policyconnect.org.uk

Past Events

What to cut and what to keep?

On 6 February, the group held a seminar to examine the fiscal sustainability of our education system. Speakers included Institute for Fiscal Studies Director Paul Johnson and In the black Labour author Anthony Painter, who opened a wide-ranging debate on how we should go about prioritising public spending on education and skills.

Read more and download the report

What's the story?

On 6 December, the group held a seminar exploring how the media covers education and skills. With contributions from Toby Young and TES's Michael Shaw, the seminar sought to identify the barriers to better media coverage of further education and skills, and examine the impact that the media's presentation of these issues has on the policy landscape.

News

Click here for more on the Skills Commission and Higher Education Commission