Place-based collaboration

In June 2023, Ufi and Learning and Work Institute committed, in the VocTech Challenge: Skills for an Economy in Transition White Paper, to work together across six workstreams to support the adoption and deployment of technology to help every adult in the UK get the skills they need to participate and benefit from our transitioning economy.

At the core of our partnership is our commitment to co-create a new programme of place-based collaboration. Our ambition has been to:

1. Identify four locations across the UK where there is a need for greater participation in adult learning and skills, desire from local leaders to work collaboratively, and a network of partners able to deliver a programme of work.
2. Work together to identify the biggest challenges impeding learning in each area, the key local barriers to adult participation in learning and consider what actions we can take together to address those barriers.
3. Support a range of tech-based solutions that can transform adult participation in learning and utilise the full range of expertise and resources that Ufi and L&W have to offer.

The programme of place-based collaboration will be developed and scoped during 2023 and is anticipated to last for a further 24 months. It is not our ambition or intention to come in and direct a programme of activity, but instead to support places which have the ambition to improve the rate of adult learning with additional funding, expertise, and a range of other tools.

At present, we are exploring a range of different options for where we will work across the four nations. We are committed to building close relationships with the places we choose to work with. By the end of 2023 we aim to have identified the four places we will collaborate with and be in the process of scoping what tools we want to deploy.