LTE Group sets out a vision for skills excellence

LTE Group has contributed to a prestigious collection of thought leadership essays published by WorldSkills UK.

The collection, titled 'Breaking down barriers to opportunity through skills excellence', explores what excellence in skills provision looks like, and what can be done to enable more people to achieve it.

The publication comes six months after Greater Manchester colleges and universities hosted the WorldSkills National Finals – the first time the national ‘skills Olympics’ had come to the city region. City Campus Manchester hosted 17 competitions including 3D digital game art, confectionery and patisserie, and graphic design.

In his essay, LTE Group CEO John Thornhill reflects on hosting the skills competitions, and contrasts the cutting-edge digital skills on display with heritage crafts he has seen being used in the renovation of Manchester Town Hall. However he concludes that some similarities are common to a range of different disciplines – and that the UK’s future economy is “dependent on us developing the next generation of experts, artisans and skills mastery. The WorldSkills movement, and all it celebrates, has never been more important.”

Other contributors to the collection include Chair of the Social Mobility Commission Alun Francis, City & Guilds CEO Kirstie Donnelly and TMC Chair Dame Ann Limb, who writes in her capacity as Chair of the Lifelong Education Institute. The collection was edited by Stephen Exley, LTE Group’s Head of Policy, PR and Public Affairs, for WorldSkills UK and can be read here.