Lifelong learning

Yesterday I was invited to Queen Margare  University with other collegues from the industry. It was an invitation which came out of the blue but as soon as we arrived the programme became clear. The university was keen to set up a dialogue with some of those they had worked with in the past and hoped to help mine this knowledge to grow and develop their courses for the future. This all seemed simple till we sat round the table and it soon became clear that whilst we all had the industry in the back of our minds we also all faced differing challenges and dilemas.

However over the course of the meeting it also became clear that with the help of the university and hard work ther was huge potential to help develop our young people and help encourage the correct kind of candidates into the industry. The biggest complaint did seem to be the gulf bewteen the ability and learning of the candidates and their expecations of the industry and the demands and expectations of the employers. It all seems so simple when you sit round a table to be able to round the square and insure that the universities offer what industry wants and industry feeds back int the system its needs and desires but i am sure these sort of engagements have happened many times before in the past and we still all seem to be back at the base.

However we all parted at the end of the evening agreeing to try harder and to strive to work together for the good of the industry and the country. This was I suspect the easy part of the task, now we must get into the fine details of how we can achieve this and really try to make a difference.