Centre for Researching Education and Labour – 30th January and 27th February 2026

Dialogue Aims
Many aspects of our skills systems don’t work well. Can we improve how our systems meet industry needs through better collective engagement of industry leaders (industry associations and unions)? Join us for a focused discussion to engage with insights from research and stakeholder perspectives.

International research suggests that sectoral bodies for coordinating training are important. Industry-wide coordination is needed to build training for broad occupational capacity for current and future workplace needs. We need them to build coordination between industry associations, employers and unions as well as between government and industry players (employers and unions), to build the long term availability of skilled, adaptable people to the economy as a whole. We need sectoral bodies to build education providers with institutional capacity to respond to changing market and production conditions.

The REAL Centre Research-led Skills Dialogues bring together researchers, policy makers, employers, workers, and education institutions, to explore meaningful solutions based on insights from systematic research into the problems facing our skills systems. The first Dialogue focuses on industry concerns with the current systems, including the view expressed by some industry representatives that the old Industry Training Boards served them better than the current systems. The second Dialogue will focus on improving workplace skills planning and funding to support training, as well as how SETAs can best be structured to support skills planning and provision.

Download for Full Details
Invitation to two Research-led Skills Dialogues