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News & articles

2 December 2024

Learning and Work Institute announces new Chair of the Wales Strategy Group

Learning and Work Institute today announced the appointment of Richard Spear as Chair of its Wales Strategy Group and an L&W Trustee.

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29 November 2024

Can the Get Britain Working White Paper get Wales working?

The UK Government has released its long trailed Get Britain Working White Paper. The White Paper sets out significant reforms to the way employment support will operate across the UK, and in particular in England, with the aim of bringing health, work and skills together in a more locally responsive delivery model.  

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14 November 2024

How Serco’s Restart Scheme is adapting to AI and the Digital Landscape to future-proof the workforce in Wales.

In an era where technology and job markets are rapidly evolving, equipping individuals with the necessary skills to develop becomes crucial. As a significant 26.5% of the working-age population in Wales remains disengaged from the labour market, it is evident that new approaches are needed.

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14 November 2024

Delivering a future-ready workforce in engineering and manufacturing for Wales

Welsh industrial heritage demonstrates a long history of excellence in engineering and manufacturing industries, such as, energy, high value manufacturing and farming that continue to remain vital our national economy. Understanding the unique requirements for both engineering and manufacturing in Wales is crucial for creating a future-ready workforce.

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22 October 2024

Equity in Tertiary Education in Wales: an adult learning perspective

The introduction of Medr, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research has the potential to dramatically reshape approaches to promoting equity in tertiary education in Wales. There are several reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the new body and how it could transform the post-compulsory landscape.

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10 September 2024

Adult learning: Creating paths to economic fairness

We all know that higher skill and education levels are key drivers of economic success, both for individuals and across geographic areas. If we want Wales to have a prosperous economy where the benefits of that prosperity are distributed evenly, then education and skills are going to be a core focus.

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6 September 2024

Participation in learning in Wales

Welsh Government has a welcome aspiration to make Wales a nation of second chances; with a policy landscape that supports lifelong learning and in particular adults returning to education. However, translating such a laudable ambition into practical action is no mean feat. We’re all accustomed to an entitlement to education into our early adulthood, but the same entitlement is less apparent as we age.

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3 June 2024

Place-based collaboration: an update from Newport

Building on the VocTech Challenge green and white papers, Ufi VocTech Trust (Ufi) and Learning and Work Institute (L&W) have developed a programme of place-based partnerships.

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14 May 2024

146,000 reasons to get employment support right in Wales

New research on the UK’s near one million young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) reveals that in Wales nearly seven in ten (69%) are economically inactive – meaning they are not currently looking or available for work.

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3 January 2024

It’s time for all of us to get involved in VET

For much of modern history vocational education and training (VET) was seen as the sole responsibility of employers. In fact it’s quite a recent phenomenon for governments to get involved in VET at all. 

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