Conference presentations

Professor Mike Campbell OBE, Director of Research and Policy, UK Commission for Employment and Skills

As Director of Research and Policy at UKCES, Professor Campbell is responsible for advising Government on the policies, strategies and targets required to reach the World Class Skills ambition and for assessing the UK’s progress towards it. Previously, he was Director of Development at the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) where he was responsible for championing and leading the Skills for Business network’s thinking and evidence base on the skills and productivity agenda.

Professor Campbelll was adviser to the Leitch Review of UK Skill Needs; is a member of the Northern Ireland Skills Expert Group; adviser to the Welsh Assembly Government on its skills and employment plan; a member of the Scottish Funding Council’s Skills Committee; and a member of the Government’s Migration Advisory Committee. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Investors in People Ambassador. He also holds a Visiting Professorship of Economics at Durham Business School and he was awarded the OBE for services to economic development in the 2004 New Years Honours List. He is a designated European Commission and OECD expert.

Professor Campbell was previously Director of the Policy Research Institute, specialising in skills and employment issues, and he has undertaken work for the European Commission, the OECD, the World Bank, DfES (now DIUS), Regional Development Agencies, Learning and Skills Councils and Local Authorities. He has also published widely in professional publications and academic journals, authored over 100 research reports, and published six books. His most recent books are Skills and Economic Performance (with Sam Porter) (Caspian 2006) and Learn to Succeed: The Case for a Skills Revolution (Policy Press 2002).


Andrew Cardozo, Executive Director,
The Alliance of Sector Councils, Canada

Andrew Cardozo is Executive Director of The Alliance of Sector Councils (TASC), a network of over 30 industry skills councils (known as "sector councils"), which cover a range of fields including tourism and construction, environment, electricity and petroleum, the automotive and police sectors. The issues addressed by TASC include up-skilling the current and future workforces, immigrant integration, Aboriginal engagement, developing of standards and certification, developing labour market information, creating career information for students and newcomers to the labour market, and engaging a broad range of labour market stakeholders. He has held this position since September of 2005.

His past career has included heading up a public policy think-tank, being a commissioner on the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications regulatory commission and working in the field of cultural diversity. Andrew teaches a course in media policy at Ottawa's Carleton University and writes monthly columns for the Hill Times (an Ottawa newspaper focusing on politics and government) and for Broadcast Dialogue. He is also a board member of the Ottawa-based Catholic Immigration Centre.

John Stone is the Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Network (LSN)

At LSN he leads an organisation which supports excellence in Learning and Skills . It does this through delivering quality improvement and staff development programmes that support specific government initiatives, through research, training and consultancy; and by supplying services directly to schools, colleges and training organisations. Prior to joining LSN, John was Principal of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College - one of the UK's largest colleges as a result of a successful merger.