Annual Conference: Yvonne Davies, champion for learning, training and employment pathways

Yvonne Davies is the chief executive of the Birmingham Citizens Advice Bureau. She chaired the panel discussion on learning, training and employment pathways, as part of the World Cafe. As Yvonne points out in the interview, there were a number of issues that came out of the discussion, some coming from the new political and economic landscape, which are listed below:

• Stop the self-invented bureaucracy that is hampering the Working Neighbourhoods Fund and other interventions. Just let them work.
• Champions: It has to be an enabled role not just pandering to scrutiny.
• Soft outcomes: Remember them!
• There is not enough emphasis on informal/non-accredited training.
• Further education colleges are not the only provider of formal qualifications
• We can train people for work but there has to be a job for them.
• There should be a funding stream for work/job creation
• A focus on who is employed, targets for taking on harder to reach groups in to work, for example percentage of employed disabled people.
• How many young apprentices has Birmingham City Council  taken on?
• Invest in social enterprise - let them into the bidding process.

Yvonne also spoke about the implications of the morning's sessions - where the new political landscape and the cuts that we are all expecting were talked about.