1. Welcome slide

2. Lifelong Learning Networks looking ahead Kevin Whitston Head of Widening Participation HEFCE

3. Update A £100m investment in 28 LLNs providing near-national coverage Key objectives –Progression for ‘vocational learners’ –Curriculum development –Learner support including IAG –Employer engagement

4. Progression agreements Learner expectations Network-wide agreements Complexity Interviews Work in progress Prospectus, pathways, agreements –What would have happened without progression agreements

5. Evaluation Peer evaluation Formative evaluation (CHERI) Key outcomes –Robust examples of successful practice –‘demonstrators’ that tell us how to tackle the problems –Real and enduring FE-HE progression links

6. Employer engagement The debate about curriculum …. and delivery Workplace learning The key place for ‘progression’ –Linking qualifications –Linking learning

7. Sector skills councils and LLNs A third of LLNs have SSCs or the SSDA on the Board SSCs contribute to curriculum development in more than 20 LLNs What more needs to be done? –Workable links –Incorporation in sector skills agreements –LLNs and employer engagement projects

8. Educational success and educational opportunity 14-19 curriculum –A-levels and curriculum reform –What does it mean to say ‘more means different’? –Parity of esteem –Is equivalence about difficulty? –Achievement and progression The new Diplomas –Transitions to employment and HE

9. Diplomas First five, next five Creative and Media Construction and the Built Environment Engineering Society, Health and Development IT Land based and Environmental Studies Manufacturing Hair and Beauty Business Administration and Finance Hospitality and Catering

10. Diploma opportunities and issues Learning that challenges the academic/ vocational divide? Lifelong learning networks –Curriculum development and progression

11. Sustainability What needs to be sustained? –Structures and processes in place What can be embedded? –Information, advice and guidance –Curriculum review and assessment What can be connected? –Employer engagement –14-19 curriculum