Ufi Vision2020

Making skills work

Caroline Flint is MP for Don Valley and the Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions. Before this, she was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from June 2003 to May 2005, responsible for reducing organised and international crime, anti-drugs co-ordination and international and European issues.

What employers want

Chris Banks CBE is Chairman of the Learning and Skills Council. He is also Deputy Chair of the National Employment Panel, advising Government on Welfare to Work reform. Previously, he was Managing Director of Coca-Cola Great Britain, Chief Executive Officer, Justerini and Brooks — IDV's global Scotch whisky business. Before that he was with Allied Domecq, HP Bulmer, Mars and ACNielsen.

Climbing unnecessary ladders

Sam Freedman is Head of the Education Unit at Policy Exchange. He achieved a first class degree in History from Magdalen College, Oxford. After completing a Masters degree in International History in 2004, Sam joined the Independent Schools Council as a researcher. He left three years later as Head of Research, having also completed a second Masters degree in Public Policy and Management at Birkbeck University of London.

Use it or lose it

Jim Hillage MBE is Director of Research at the Institute for Employment Studies, where he specialises in research on skills and training issues, in particular, the impact and effectiveness of government training policies. He is currently leading the national evaluation of the Activity and Learning Agreement pilots for the Department for Children, Schools and Families and is also evaluating Train to Gain and the Adult Learning Account Trials for the LSC.

Choice based opportunities

Chris Humphries is Principal and Chief Executive of Oaklands College in Hertfordshire. Before that, he was a Deputy Director in the DfES which included working in areas of FE policy and Skills for Life. Mark also spent four years with a company delivering e-Government to the public sector, including FE.

Climbing the work ladder

Paul King is Marketing Director for Pertemps People Development Group — one of the largest organisations in the Welfare to Work sector in the UK. He joined the company in 2002 after graduating from the University of Birmingham with a First Class Honours degree in History.

21st century skills

Pablo Lloyd is Deputy Chief Executive of Ufi Ltd. He is responsible for strategic planning and stakeholder relations. He joined Ufi in March 1999 as Finance Director and became Deputy CEO in 2003. A graduate of Cambridge University and a qualified accountant, Pablo has worked for Arthur Andersen, Lloyds Bank PLC where he project-managed the introduction of new accounting systems, Nationwide Building Society as Finance Director of their property services subsidiary, and the Performing Right Society as Finance Director.

From here to the top

Dame Ruth Silver is the Principal of Lewisham College, a large inner-city, further education college in South East London. It is a double Beacon College which aims to ensure all members of the community are provided with opportunities to succeed. She sits on the new London Skills and Employment Board, is an adviser to the Select Committee in the House of Commons, is a trustee of the Edge Foundation and also Horsesmouth, an online peer-mentoring enterprise.