The Association Learning Provider Conference is now in its 7th year and despite the budget challenges for providers there was still a healthy delegate attendance at this springs event at the East Midlands Conference Centre on the Campus of Nottingham University.
The ALP is acknowledged as the voice of independent providers and is certainly listened to by employment and training strategists and ministers, no more so as at this time of economic downturn.
Had the recession come at a time of stability, a strategy for how training could aid recovery would have been challenging, but set against a back drop of changes to the Machinery of Government involving the demise of the LSC, the creation of the SFA and YPLA, the responsibility for 16-18 education and training returning to local authority control and an imminent General Election makes these testing times indeed.
The Conference did a good job of unpacking the problems and providing members, strategists and ministers with guidance and evidence for them to address the concerns of the sector. This included questioning why the £83 million announced in the budget to fund 75,000 training places had been ring fenced for colleges and the mixed messages being received with respect to Train to Gain budgets the uncertainly of which was leading many independent providers to closing down training capacity in some regions whilst there remained a surplus of funds in other areas.
Capita also hosted break-out sessions looking at ways of improving quality of data and maximising funding. In uncertain times one guarantee will be the need for providers to increase efficiency by reducing the administration burden and moving resource to the front line is a certainty.