Latest News

Northern Skills Network Festive Roundup 2023

Summary from the 2023 October 'Skills Across the North' conference held in Leeds

Northern regional networks collaborative reach & impact in engaging schools through the ASK prohect

FE Recruitment & Retention Roundtable October 2023

FE Recruitment & Retention Roundtable May 2023

Northern Skills Network EPA Reasonable Adjustments Report September 2023

The fourth summary for our Northern Skills Network Green & Sustainable Development Community of Practice.

The programme for our next Green Skills for the North conference, 25.09.23

The third summary for our Northern Skills Network Green & Sustainable Development Community of Practice.

Northern Skills Network Quarterly Update (June 2023)

The second summary for our Northern Skills Network Green & Sustainable Development Community of Practice.

The first summary for our Northern Skills Network Green & Sustainable Development Community of Practice.

Our co-chair, Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network, have recently published a report on Health & Social Care apprenticeship provision across Manchester and the North.

In September 2022 we held our first NSN Green Skills conference, which included colleges, training providers & MCA’s from across the North to showcase & share the work taking place on the green agenda for FE & Skills. This event was such a positive & collaborative approach, that there was a big call for a northern community of practice to continue the work and disseminating support and resource.

We are delighted to announce the Northern Skills Network has been successful in accessing grant funding from the Education & Training Foundation, part of the Apprenticeship workforce development programme. We will be using this funding to develop & implement a Green & Sustainable Development (GSD) suite of support for apprenticeship providers across the North.

Read the full summary of our Manifesto launch event here

Anne Gornall, co-chair of the Northern Skills Network has received an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to Further Education and Skills.

Summary for the ‘Green Skills for the North’ conference we held online September 2022

Summary from the 2022 October 'Skills Across the North' conference held in Manchester

The Board of the Northern Skills Network (NSN), which represent over 350 education & skills providers across the North of England welcome the launch of the Government’s Levelling up White Paper and support its ambition to ensure that no region or community is left behind.

Whilst we support the Government’s Levelling up white paper and its missions, we also must establish how as regional networks, a pan-northern partnership and our individual members we can work to ensure the paper becomes reality and position FE & Skills to be a key driver in its success.

Following a consultation with members and a strategic review with the GMLPN Board, GMLPN are excited to launch their rebrand!

The strategic review looked at the vision and priorities of GMLPN, as well as considering what else they could do to add value to their membership service and what more could be done to impact the wider Further Education Sector in Greater Manchester.

YNYER Apprenticeship Hub

We are delighted to be partnering with the YNYER Apprenticeship Hub to support the promotion & growth of apprenticeships across the region. We are excited to bring the first apprenticeship directory, to be launched in the New Year, highlighting the Apprenticeship providers & provision across the patch and to share this with schools, parents, teachers, employers and key stakeholders. This is a great opportunity to showcase apprenticeships, their benefits and the organisations who deliver them. If you would like to be featured in the directory please get in touch – beth.vickers@wylp.org.uk “ Alex Miles, Managing Director, Yorkshire Learning Providers

Pride in FE - LGBTQ project

WYLP are proud to be partnering with Skillsfirst, Association of Colleges and LGBTed on our Pride in FE project which we have received funding from the ETF to provide FE leaders with the opportunity to develop their knowledge & understanding in providing inclusive curriculums and environments for LGBTQ+ staff and learners.

We are the only organisation focusing the EDI funding on the LGBTQ community and are proud to be able to champion this crucial agenda to bring greater equality for LGBTQ+ learners and staff across FE.

The Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network (GMLPN), in partnership with the Association of Colleges (AoC), and funding from the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, have embarked on a project over the past year to research into and improve Mental Health support for Training Providers, their learners and the employers they work with.

WYLP launched their annual membership evaluation survey which provides providers with an opportunity to review & evaluate their membership services from us and provide feedback for improvements or future themes you would like us to cover.

Please find below the summary of responses & findings from the members evaluation

This blog has been developed in partnership between Alex Miles (MD at Yorkshire Learning Providers Network) and Paul White (Head of Provider Development at NCFE) to provide the sector with an insight into how safeguarding is developing across the FE landscape. Read on for helpful hints, tips, advice and guidance on understanding and implementing safeguarding arrangements so learners can be supported in the best way that meets their individual needs.

Progress in the Supporting Autistic Individuals in to Apprenticeship Project, delivered by GMLPN in
partnership with NCFE is well underway! The project aims to raise awareness of the potential of autistic individuals, enable access to apprenticeships, and provide guidance on how referral agencies, training providers and employers can support autistic individuals. The project will equip 20 autistic individuals with the technical and employability skills to progress in to an Apprenticeship.

The Social Mobility Commission has published their ‘State of the Nation’ report 2021 in which they call for a shake-up in child welfare & significant investment in
education.
The report identifies the impact from Covid on the UK, how this will be felt for decades to come and has outlined seven key pillars for recovery with detailed recommendations covering: geography and local power; poverty and living standards; early years; education; apprenticeships and adult skills; digital access; and work and career progression.
It is important that we all respond to the social mobility crisis across our sector, ensuring that education & training opportunities are accessible to all, adaptable to those who need it and cover a range of levels and sectors.

Last week, June 17th, we held our 2nd WellFest event for practitioners and support staff across the FE sector.
For this years event we wanted it to be bigger and better than ever, so we joined forces with our friends and colleagues at Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network to have a greater audience. We also had some fantastic sponsors and supported again this year, with special thanks to Cache Alumni, NCFE, BDLD, Skills Forward, LearnBox & Cognassist. This blog provides a summary of our fantastic speakers & experts covering important and insightful themes. All resources discussed will be made available from the WYLP website.

The Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network (GMLPN), in partnership with education provider NCFE, have launched a new project to increase apprenticeship opportunities for autistic young people.

It has been a year since NSN officially launched, with our first northern skills conference. It was an extremely well attended and positive event, establishing the network as a key voice for skills policy and development across the North.

“The Board of the Northern Skills Network (NSN) welcomes the recent publication of the government’s FE White Paper and its strong commitment to strengthen the further education sector and promote higher level technical skills. In particular, the emphasis on placing employers at the heart of future development of skills plans within their local area, very much aligns with the levelling-up agenda and developing a resurgent economy across the North of England.

NSN therefore, looks forward to working with its partners and stakeholders across the North during the coming months, to help deliver the aspirations contained within the White Paper.”

OLDHAM College is delighted to announce that Alun Francis has been made an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year 2021 Honours List.

The OBE has been awarded for his services to education – including a decade of leadership at Oldham College.

NSN Network Members return to opening

NSN partners have provided some examples & case studies of their Return to Opening plans – please click on the links below to find out more and read the different approaches.

WYLP returning to work guide for providers

Preston College re-opening

LCG Construction academy open’s back up

Sheffield College confirms re-opening

Appris re-opening

Nelson and Colne College Group ‘Returning to Learning Safely’

Hopwood Hall College pledge

Learning Curve Group – Northern Powerhouse – Northern Skills Network

Firstly the NSN hope all Networks & their members are keeping safe and well.

As you can imagine, much of the discussions we are having at the moment are centred on the impact of Covid-19 and the sharing of information between networks. We agreed that whilst we need to focus on ‘what needs to be done now’, we also needed to continue to think about ‘what needs to be done in the future’.

In terms of ‘what needs to be done now’, we decided that there would be value in setting up a weekly conference call for all the network leads to participate in, as a way of maintaining communication and sharing issues/good practice etc. In terms of the ‘what needs to be done in the future’ – we have postponed the strategy day, but will continue communication with networks & their members and a NSN board questionnaire & survey will be issued over the next few weeks to gather information & feedback on the future business development & growth of NSN

The information we have shared to date include

A copy of the Business Continuity Plan developed by WYLP
A copy of the WYLP CPD webinar opportunities
A copy of an FE week article regarding the suspension of the ‘break in learning’ rules for affected apprentices
A copy of an email sent to all GMLPN members and the GM Combined Authority giving an update on COVID-19/ Coronavirus implications
The latest guidance from AELP on Covid-19

Educational services charity, NCFE, has announced a new strategic partnership with The Northern Skills Network (NSN).

The Board of the Northern Skills Network (NSN) are delighted to announce that NSN has become a member of the government’s Northern Powerhouse Partnership Programme.

The appointment is recognition of the contribution that the NSN and its nine regional network members make towards increasing the skills, employability and productivity of people & businesses across the North of England. In all, the NSN represents over 300 education and training providers and as such, is the largest representative body of its type in the North of England.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI), in partnership with the Fair Education Alliance (FEA), has published its flagship Annual Report on the state of education in England.

The new report examines the progress made in closing the gap in educational attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, known as ‘the disadvantage gap’. The measure is a leading indicator of social mobility.

Boris Johnson has been urged to go further to realise his pledge to support the Northern Powerhouse, as Yorkshire’s political leaders called for more detail from the new Prime Minister.

Channel 4 has today revealed a recruitment drive for a wide range of positions ahead of opening its national headquarters in Leeds.

The organisation wants to promote jobs which some may not have considered relevant to the broadcasting industry in its search for fresh talent and is promoting its email alerts which update people about new roles.