In December 2006, Lord Leitch published his final report, Prosperity for all in the Global Economy: World Class Skills. Employers are likely to agree with his observation that: "Without increased skills, we condemn ourselves to a lingering decline in competitiveness and diminishing economic growth... The case for action is urgent... more than one in six young people leave school unable to read, write or add up properly."
Annika Small, chief executive of Futurelab (a not-for-profit organisation which spun out from NESTA in April 2006) shares his sense of urgency. "Formal education is desperately out of sync with how young people learn elsewhere," she says. "Changing economic and cultural drivers are creating an urgent need for new sets of skills in our young people. If we don't act now, we will find ourselves with an education system irrelevant not only to learners but also to employers."
Futurelab's response has been to bring together academia, industry and policy-makers to work collaboratively on developing more innovative learning practices. It's got a dynamic board: Lord David Puttnam, who was the inspiration behind what was then called NESTA Futurelab, is chair.
It was the partnership model that attracted Small to the organisation originally. "I've always been excited about innovation and creativity. From our research to our product development, we bring together technology firms, teachers, policy-makers and new media professionals. We work together, experiment and produce something. It might be a concept, a framework model or a piece of software," she explains.
The charity receives core funding from the Department for Education and Skills, commercial organisations (the larger of which are particularly interested in Futurelab's research work) and research grants. Its activities comprise research, prototype development and communication. In this latter, it adopts an open approach and shares the lessons it has learnt. "Quite rightly, there are discussions around intellectual property and licensing, but there's a danger of holding on to ideas where you retain 100 per cent of absolutely nothing," says Small. "Our experience has been that, through sharing ideas, you get a smaller percentage of something very significant."
Businesses are sometimes criticised for trying to influence education. But as Small sees it, everyone should be involved in the debate: "I worry that business is perhaps not having enough of a voice," she says. "It's absolutely critical that business does get involved if the UK is to remain competitive."
She suggests small and medium-sized enterprises start by thinking more laterally. "Employers need people who are comfortable with change, can externalise ideas, take initiative and work collaboratively. So SMEs should, perhaps, look at not only recruiting people purely for their academic ability and create environments that stimulate creativity and allow for experimentation."
Small's own challenge going forward is to manage what she describes as the "creative chaos". She says: "We can't control this too much-we want to experiment, fail, try again-but we can't let it get out of hand, either. We have to ensure that we don't spread ourselves too thinly, but also don't miss out on huge opportunities."
