Education Supper and Interactive Debate

  
​An interactive debate with thought leaders and audience participation

Please note that booking is now only open for the debate

To attend the Interactive Debate/Discussion please click on this link to open a new tab/window to the Bayes system to register your attendance.

  
​An overview of the event

The evening starts with a debate/discussion that will explore and challenge the future alignment of the recruitment needs of business sectors prominent in the City of London with graduates, apprentices and people with specialist technical qualifications from higher and further education.

The key question we aim to explore is “if you were recruiting five years from now, what would you expect from the education system that is different from what you expect today?”. 

Come and join in this debate - help shape the future of education in this country.

The recruitment and retention of top talent is ranked as one of the biggest concerns facing businesses today. Many young people pursue additional education in the belief it will help them as they step into professional life. But the business landscape is changing, and the pace of change is relentless.  There is increasing demand for “new age” jobs that incorporate skills such as data analytics and digital, as well as changes in attitude about the workplace environment and social responsibility.

How do Employers and the Education System evolve and respond to these changes, so that we continue to produce the bankers, accountants, lawyers, information technologists and management consultants of the future. In such a critical balance of supply and demand, we cannot afford misalignment. 

Join us in this exciting opportunity to explore this issue and some possible solutions. The debate/discussion will be hosted by Andre Spicer, Dean of Bayes Business School, and Malcolm McCaig, Chair of the Education Committee of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants. In addition to hearing from the panel, the audience will have an opportunity to pose their questions:

• The event will be moderated by Rebecca George CBE. Rebecca is the Independent Chair, Skills Steering Board for the Department of Education, which is responsible for delivering reform across FE, HE and Life Long Learning. Until June 2021 Rebecca was a Managing Partner at Deloitte, leading their Public Sector practice. Before joining Deloitte, she spent nearly 20 years at IBM in a variety of roles including sales, business process reengineering and HR. Rebecca is a Past President and former Trustee of the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. She is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and has served on the Board of the City Mental Health Alliance. She was honoured with an OBE in 2006, and a CBE in 2023.
   
• Setting out the position for Employers is Sarah Passmore. Sarah is the People Director for PwC's Audit business, which employs over 600 graduates annually. In her role at PwC, she oversees the end to end people strategy. This includes all hiring for the audit business, which has recently redesigned their graduate assessment to better align with the future needs of the business. Her background is in management consulting, where she advised organisations on building and shaping their 'workforce of the future'.
   
• Sarah will be joined on the panel by Jenny Taylor MBE, who is responsible for IBM UK's Graduate, Apprenticeship and Intern programmes. These programmes have won multiple awards, including a Princess Royal Training Award in 2022. Jenny is also Chair of the Employer Trailblazer Group for the Digital and Technology Solutions Degree Apprentice, and is a member of the TechSkills Employer Apprenticeship Board and the City and Guilds Council. She won Apprentice Champion of the Year in the National Apprenticeship Awards in 2020 and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list 2022 for services to Education.
   
• Setting out the position for Education is Dr Sionade Robinson FRGS. Sionade is City University’s Vice President of Engagement, Enterprise, and Employability. She began her career as a management consultant before founding her own consulting firm specialising in customer insight, skills development, and measurable performance improvement. For the last 15 years she has served City University as an innovative leader of learning programmes to enable students to put their knowledge to work in pursuit of their career ambitions. Sionade is an Associate Professor of Education at the Bayes Business School.
   
• Sionade will be joined by Keith Smith who has worked in the skills system for 25 years. He is currently CEO of West London’s leading college group HRUC (Harrow, Richmond and Uxbridge Colleges), which includes the West London Institute of Technology. In his previous roles, Keith was a senior civil servant and was the architect of the Skills for Jobs White Paper, published in January 2021. He is a graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy and has led on a number of large national delivery and infrastructure projects, including the national apprenticeship quality reforms, operationalisation of the apprenticeship levy and the national Further Education Funding system for England.

The Education Supper: Further Debate/Discussion

Following the initial debate, there will then be an exclusive dinner coupled with some excellent Sicilian wine that WCoMC bought and transported across Europe for its cellar in 2017. Rebecca, Sionaide and Sarah will be in attendance together with members of the Company and their invited guests and we intend the earlier debate and discussion to continue, giving a second chance to influence future education.

During the dinner, the winner of the Urwick Cup in 2022, Professor Andrew Sturdy, will give a brief synopsis of his award winning research on "The Governance of Management Consultancy Use: Practices, Problems, and Possibilities". The practical application of this research could have significant consequences for the management consultancy profession in the future.

Members and registered Event Account Holders can click on this Participant Listing link to see who has booked for the Education Supper.

Please note that payment for the Supper will be processed by Stripe.

Dress code (particularly for the Supper) is Business Attire.

The Evening's Programme

  
Booking:  is now only open for the Debate

As this event is in two parts, Bayes are managing the bookings for the debate/discussion and WCoMC is managing the bookings for the Education Supper.

• To attend the Debate/discussion please click on this link to open a new tab/window to the Bayes system to register your attendance.
• Regretfully, booking for the supper is now closed.

If you have any queries about booking, please contact events-team@wcomc.org.

Thank you.