Themes 2009

This year’s theme is 'Skilled for Success' - the focus on skills has already sharpened with the changing economic circumstances – the Government has announced more money and increased flexibility for training through Train to Gain, for example. During this unsettling time for workplaces, maintaining the ability and motivation to learn and adapt quickly to change will be essential – we should all be reflecting on our skills needs both at an individual and a business level, and taking action where needed.

'Skilled for Success' has been split into 3 main strands. These are:

• Key competencies - Competencies are skills or behaviours that are needed to perform your job. These competencies are usually learnt and developed throughout an individuals working career.

• ‘Soft’ skills - Soft skills are those skills that go beyond the technical requirements of a role and influence how we interact with each other. They are often intangible and therefore more difficult to teach. They have increasingly being recognised as being as important as job related skills. 

• Being ready to learn new skills - To get the most out of learning something new and for our learning to have a successful outcome, we need to feel ready to learn.