Kent and Medway Skills Commission

Kent County Council’s Skills and Employability team has set up a series of sector based employer Guilds to build and enhance connections between education and training providers and employers.

The Kent and Medway Guilds currently in operation are:

Hospitality and Catering
Health & Social Care
Science
Construction & the built environment
Creative Arts (including Digital Media)
Engineering & Advanced Manufacturing
Land Based

A Financial Services Guild will be set up in Autumn 2016 with other Guilds to follow. The Guilds meet quarterly and are attended by a range of employers and education training providers. They actively promote collaboration between schools, colleges and employers to ensure that young and people undertake training that has ‘a clear line of sight to work’.

Some of the initiatives already underway include:

the ‘Hospitality Conversation’ bringing together employers and students studying catering and hospitality courses, which led to over 100 promises of work experience and 40 promises of apprenticeships
a ‘careers in Health & Social Care’ video, produced by Mid Kent College students in partnership with employers
the ‘Engineering newsletter’, a quarterly bulletin communicating good news stories about school/employer collaborations
and pledges by employers from all of the guilds to provide work placements or apprenticeship places

The guilds provide representatives to the Kent and Medway Skills Commission, a body which has influence on the distribution of South East Local Enterprise Partnership funding, including any capital funding schemes for skill training provision.

If you are interested in coming along to a Guild, or joining as a member please contact Allan Baillie, Skills & Employability Manager at allan.baillie@kent.gov.uk