Why we’ve launched AELP Exchange
Cheryl Swales | Head of Strategic Projects | AELP
This is a critical time for the skills sector. With a new government elected less than a year ago, we have seen skills reform become a significant part of the policy agenda. Given the pressures of an evolving labour market, technological advancements, and the increasing demand for a workforce equipped with the right skills, the sector must adapt to meet the needs of employers, learners, and the wider economy. The government's focus on creating an industrial strategy, along with the development of AI and the rising demand for green skills, presents us with both opportunities and challenges.
There are expectations for a more streamlined and responsive skills system, along with potential funding and regulatory changes that could reshape how training providers operate. The transition period will be crucial as policymakers, employers, and educators work to balance upskilling, reskilling, and ensuring equitable access to high-quality training. With the government’s commitment to reform, now is the time for the sector to engage, influence policy, and help shape a system that is fit for the future.
Engagement must be a two way process
AELP Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Sector Forums have been a crucial part of our membership offer. These groups provide valuable opportunities for members and their teams to receive relevant updates, engage in peer-to-peer collaboration, network, share best practice, discuss challenges, and, importantly, celebrate successes.
These meetings also serve a vital function in informing AELP’s strategy and engagement with government and its agencies. They generate useful insights from members that help guide our policy, lobbying, and research activities. In this way, they truly are a two-way street!
I have been involved with these groups for almost ten years, working with our members to refine and continuously review and enhance this service. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we switched all meetings from face to face, to online. This enabled us to continue to support members and this format has been highly successful. In fact, the majority of members prefer the online groups, as they facilitate greater opportunities for participation and engagement.
At the end of last year, I began to think how we could continue to evolve this offer and ensure members got the most of these discussions and create positive sector change. Building on feedback, from April, we will be transforming our member meetings to create deeper collaboration, spark innovation, and enhance engagement across a rapidly evolving skills sector. A new offer for AELP members.
On Monday 24 March 2025, guided by member feedback, we launched AELP Exchange.
AELP Exchange will enhance networking opportunities, and maximise the impact of our conversations. Additionally, a new webpage will improve the visibility of meeting dates and content, allowing us to engage with more of our members.
As part of our new offer, we will launch two new Special Interest Groups in April focusing on ‘Devolution’ and ‘16 – 19 Provision’. We will also maintain our current 14 Sector Forums, which will feature representation from across key voices in the sector, enabling attendees to contribute on a range of topics. In addition to the Sector Forum meetings, we are looking to set up some new online sector-based Teams groups so that members can interact in between meetings. I am excited to announce that we are introducing new Communities of Practice groups. Please stay tuned for more updates, as these new groups will provide operational specialities the chance to discuss more delivery focused areas including Safeguarding, Inspection and Data, Submissions and Returns.
Opportunities to chair our member groups
Of course, we couldn’t run any of these meetings without our chairs. Chairs are volunteers from a range of member organisations with subject and sector expertise. Chairs work very closely with us to ensure content is relevant, engaging and informative and represents the voice of all members.
From this month onwards, we are re-instating the chair role nomination process. We believe that this will strengthen our governance arrangements and ensure that we have an open and transparent approach to the chair role. We encourage more members to get involved! More information on the chair role and nomination form can be viewed here, with more groups being announced soon. The first groups open for nominations, with deadlines, are outlined on our webpage.
I’m really excited about our new offer and look forward to welcoming even more members to the meetings very soon. If you would like to know more about any of our groups or have any suggestions for improvement, please do contact me directly at [email protected].
For any organisations that are not currently AELP members but would like to get involved, our membership team is waiting to hear from you!
AELP Exchange meetings are free for members to attend - view upcoming meetings on our events page. AELP members can subscribe to regular email notifications, and book via MyAELP.
AELP Exchange
For any questions, please contact Cheryl Swales, Head of Stategic Projects, AELP [email protected]
