vocL’s Post

📚 Do you want your business school to be involved in more impactful and immersive educational experiences? Well they can be by joining the Fair Chance Business Education Consortium. Tag them in the comments below👇 or forward the link.

I was trying to find something witty to justify this post - I couldn't, so here it is, I'm just bragging a bit. Whilst all of the political uncertainty has been happening for the last three months we have continued growing YFM Equity Partners, and supporting more Entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. - We have completed 3 new investments Fuuse, Spotless Water and Ohalo. - Had 5 new people join the team: Christina Tymviou, Jack Redwood and Oliver Wheatley joining as Investment Managers, Francesca Barnes as Origination Manager, and Michael Newton as Rev Ops Manager to support our portfolio companies on their growth journey. - A great exit for one of our portfolio - 3 Students starting their summer placements across our Manchester, Leeds and London offices - we work with SEO London https://lnkd.in/dXsVes-Z to find students from under represented backgrounds. - And, perhaps my favourite bit: 5 internal promotions: Jen Townshend and Roshan Puri join the YFM Equity Partners Partnership, Laura Wiggins (née Sisson) moves up to Investment Director, Katie Jade Harrison and Callum Long both promoted to Investment Manager. We cannot ignore the macro uncertainty in the market right now, but we do know that Entrepreneurs are still building great businesses and if you are looking for Capital to help you do that - either to go faster to buyout existing shareholders - then we would be keen to see if we can help.

Big week for skills! Some striking data in this report from ETS, although I think the relationship between degrees and other credentials will evolve over time and not end up in an either/or place. C-BEN entering the skills validation space is a big deal given my belief that skills validation and competency-based education go head in hand. Looking forward to the weeks ahead! ETS Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) Walmart #skills #microcredentials

Acquiring an existing business is a great entry into the world of business ownership. Instead of starting from scratch you have a base that you can build upon.

Unlocked story!🔓 Read this Leader Board story written by Glenn Roquemore, PhD, former college professor and president of Irvine Valley College, and now owner of an Irvine-based consulting firm. #OCBJ #OCNews #Business #OrangeCounty

Workers don’t want the future of work to happen to them - they want to help create it. Let’s make work based learning and #registeredapprenticeship the cornerstone of preparing for the future of work. What a great conversation at the Illinois #WIOASummit2024!

In their Crain's Chicago Business op-ed, the Trust's Andrea Sáenz and One Million Degrees' Aneesh Sohoni detail insights into the ways #Chicago can show the nation how employers can lead the charge in creating a thriving economy for all: https://bit.ly/3TNxsLQ They note: "Ensuring every Chicagoan has access to learning opportunities that lead to stable, well-paying work isn't just a matter of fairness and equity; it's essential to the city’s economic growth. Research shows that more expansive, diverse talent pipelines fuel stronger outcomes for businesses and the economy at large... By reimagining how they identify, recruit, and develop talent, Chicago’s business leaders can create game-changing outcomes for their bottom line and the Chicago region."

Join us for a free webinar through the Illinois Education and Career Success Network to learn how Junior Achievement of Central Illinois is helping bridge the gap between local employer hiring needs, the young adult workforce, and high school PaCE Framework objectives! #workforcedevelopment #PaCEFramework #EmployerEngagement

By investing in CTE, businesses can help students - especially those from underserved communities - gain the skills needed for tomorrow’s jobs. This is about more than corporate social responsibility and about solving real business challenges while creating pathways to lifelong success for students. Read more in the latest Fortune OpEd authored by EVERFI from Blackbaud President and Co-founder, Ray Martinez.

Recently, Paul Fain highlighted the need of youth apprenticeship programs in our workforce in his newsletter “The Job.” He instantly noted that employers need to take a more active role in the U.S. education system to establish career pathways for a broader range of Americans, especially those without four-year degrees. Despite bipartisan support and the pressing demands of the labor market, progress in this area has been slow at best. Noting two The Brookings Institution reports, he commented that the best approach to solving this need is through regional, multi-sector coalitions, a goal CareerWise and our partners have been working toward for years. He quotes Annelies Goger, a Brookings Metro fellow and co-author of the report: “The changes that we propose involve a transformative shift in how employers in the U.S. have seen themselves, from being a consumer of talent to being a co-producer of talent… Eventually, more employers will come to the conclusion that they have to play a more active role in creating the prepared workforce they need.” You can read the entire newsletter where he explores “A Unified Voice on Workforce Needs” here: https://lnkd.in/g_wEEgqn?