The People
Immediately prior to establishing KindleCo, Jo Broad was responsible for Education, Learning & Skills at Arts Council England, managing a newly-formed policy-led portfolio, for the East England region. One of the first, in a new generation of cross-cutting roles within the organisation, Jo was tasked with developing a fresh 3 year strategy for ACE East to elevate & integrate its role in helping to strategically embed Education, Learning & Skills, as a driver for change in the region as a whole, working as an equal partner with strategic agencies, outside the Arts. The aim was to not only drive up engagement and investment into the Arts, but in the wider community and workforce by developing innovative new programmes which would attract investment into the region’s human capital. As part of this new Strategy, Jo both developed innovative new change-maker programmes focussed on upskilling adults, through the Arts, and, led the roll-out of key national Government ‘change-maker’ programmes in the East Region, working extensively with Local Authorities, Sport England and Schools. Jo brought together in strategic partnership, agencies who had never previously worked together, who collaborated and pooled funding to target development needs in the Region. This include a first ever partnership on Employability for young adults, using the Arts as a vehicle for learning engagement, between the East England Development Agency, Arts Council England, the DfEs ‘Skills for Life’ programme, two Learning & Skills Councils, FE Colleges and a major regional employer, BAA Stansted.
The Challenge
We set out to forge a link between the agendas of different government agencies, policy areas, regional employers and the Arts sector, to drive collaborative action on Educational engagement, workforce skills and adult literacy & numeracy.
The Response
As one element of her new Strategy, Jo brokered a partnership with BAA’s Stansted Airport and a range of agencies supporting young people and adults. A joint objective was agreed of increasing recruitment and employment at the Airport of young people & young adults disadvantaged in the job market due to poor key skills. Jo brought together five diverse organisations and associated funding streams. The expertise & resources of different organisations were pooled and an innovative training tool using the Arts was established within the Airport Skills Programme. Using the Arts as a delivery mechanism, the training was fun for participants, had measurable learning outcomes and was bespoke to the employer. This sat alongside the regional roll-out of key national programmes including “Creative Partnerships” and “Spaces for Sport and the Arts” delivered through a range of Local Authority, Education and statutory body partnerships.
The Success
The BAA partnership project helped strengthen the ‘innovation’ branding of the Airport Skills Programme and was reported by BAA to have approximately 40 % improved success in recruiting young trainees to the point of job placement. The project provided an exchange of skills between mainstream and niche arts-based training providers. The project was subsequently promoted by BAA Stansted to its sister airports at Heathrow and Gatwick as a key element of their Social Responsibility & Workforce Skills strategy. The “Creative Partnerships” and “Spaces for Sports and the Arts” programmes were successfully delivered in the East region on behalf of DCMS and DfES in multiple Local Authority areas, giving access to high-quality enriched Learning experiences to young people and adults in our communities. Jo became the nominated lead for workforce development in the national education officers task group - a collaboration between the 10 Arts Council regional offices.
Want To Know More?
A report on this partnership featured in the first ever ‘Stansted Employment Forum Newsletter’ and is available on request from Kindle.