Around 50 business and education leaders from across Oxfordshire came together yesterday (25 April) at OxLEP's latest Q&A event, discussing whether or not education providers and young people are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow.
The debate was the latest in a series of Q&As led by OxLEP, bringing together the county’s businesses to discuss key aspects of the economy. Previously, Q&As have focussed on areas such as recruitment, connectivity in Oxfordshire and what the county offers in terms of ‘place-making’.
Yesterday’s event – which was held at Blenheim Palace – included panellists; Nigel Tipple – OxLEP’s Chief Executive, Kate Berman – Co-founder of Olamalu, Dominic Hare – Chief Executive of Blenheim Palace, Ali Adams – Partnerships Manager at UTC Oxfordshire and Leona Weston – OxLEP’s PR and Communications Apprentice.
The event was chaired by radio presenter Howard Bentham.
During the Q&A debate, the panel and audience members analysed the ‘profile’ of a Generation Z and key topics including; are businesses and education providers working effectively with each other, how do skills ‘underpin’ the future of Oxfordshire’s economy and are businesses informing our education providers of the skills that will be required by 2040.
Following the Q&A, around 70 people – working across Oxfordshire’s education sector – took part in a Skills Conference, which included sessions on the emerging Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy – led by OxLEP’s Ahmed Goga, a talk on embedding enterprise within schools from Nick Bowen of the Yorkshire-based Horizon Community College and creating meaningful work experience collaborations between business and education.
OxLEP’s next Q&A event will take place on 9 July at the Harwell Campus-based European Space Agency.
Head to OxLEP’s Twitter feed (or search #Oxfordshire2040 on Twitter) to see some of the key points discussed by panellists and audience members.
