About us

FEdS Consultancy - Better thinking for a better tomorrow

FEdS aim is to promote well-informed debate that will improve the provision of education and skills in the UK.

It provides a neutral space where experienced people from business, education and government can think creatively and work collaboratively.

 

Since its establishment in July 1996, FEdS Consultancy has created a niche position for itself that is not replicated in any other organisation.

 

Members of FEdS Business Forum benefit from tailored policy briefings and discussion seminars with key personnel in government and its agencies.

 

FEdS is not just about thinking and talking, important as those are.  As a result of its work, FEdS has instigated a number of programmes that have filled recognised gaps in the education and skills system.


Principles

 

All our work at FEdS is governed by six important principles:

  • We are concerned with the development of learning and skills for every individual;

  • Our perspective is over a lifetime of individual development;

  • We work collaboratively with business, government and education;

  • Our interests span the UK;

  • We never adopt a particular political stance, nor seek to lobby government.  Rather, we aim to provide a supportive and neutral forum in which people’s thinking can develop;

  • FEdS is a business, operating independently within the Prospects Group.  It receives neither core grants nor sponsorship funding, although some of its events are sponsored.

What FEdS does

 

The FEdS Business Forum on Lifelong Learning

 

The Business Forum is the core focus for our work. It provides members with tightly written, tailored information; access to FEdS expertise; and the opportunity to debate education, learning and skills policy and its implementation.  

 

Business Forum members receive monthly FEdS Briefings covering a broad range of news and policy developments; regular policy updates and analysis; ‘think pieces’ on topical issues; invitations to seminars and dinner discussions; and any papers arising from events.

 

All FEdS papers seek both to reflect what has been discussed or written and to reflect upon that detail within a broader context.

 

We also respond to individual members requirements for a limited number of in-house seminars and focused papers each year.  

 

Membership of the Forum generally remains at around 50, with at least 50% of members being major private sector companies.

 

Members of FEdS Business Forum include:

 

Microsoft  

Cisco Systems 

British Telecom

BP

Unilever UK

Marks & Spencer        

The BBC         

UK Commission for Employment & Skills

Lloyds Banking Group 

NESTA

Specialist Schools & Academies Trust

Institute for Education Business Excellence       

QCDA     

 Scottish Parliament

 HTI     

 

Targeted Consultancy

 

FEdS undertakes ad hoc consultancy projects for member companies.  Past projects include the Unilever governors programme and Work Experience programmes with Marks & Spencer and HSBC.  

 

Programmes

 

Programmes are devised and developed as opportunities emerge.  Although they may start life subsidised by FEdS core business, the aim is always for them to become viable as an independent ‘mini business’.

FEdS programmes are designed to:

  • Fill a perceived gap and add value;

  • Find a solution that is not reliant on Government;

  • Draw together isolated but related initiatives in a way that enables them jointly to have an impact that they cannot have alone.

Examples are the e-Learning Foundation; the Employee Governor Network; the Signposter Programme; the Professional Development Website; the Goodison Group and the Goodison Group in Scotland.

 

The Strategy Forum and the Goodison Group in Scotland

 

Both these fora are non-member initiatives that enable us to address longer-term, broad-based issues around lifelong learning.  They also provide an opportunity to develop a very wide circle of contact organisations through conferences, seminars and workshops.

 

Some 140 organisations are linked to the Goodison Group in Scotland.  The first Strategy Forum event was held in London in November 2009.  It brought together the relevant Directors and Directors General from the 4 nations of the UK together with the Chairman and Chief Executive of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills to consider how the policies are developing differently in the 4 nations.

 

FEdS Associates Consultancy Service

 

FEdS currently has some 25 Associates who all run their own portfolio businesses.  We are seeking to develop this group into a consultancy service.  The intention is to bid for contracts, carry out targeted consultancy for our members and build our capacity to develop new ideas.

 

Please visit us at: http://www.feds.co.uk/