The Future's Bright for the GMSA

 I am delighted to announce that members of the Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance (GMSA) Council have voted unanimously to continue to support the GMSA into 2010 and beyond.  The benefits of partnership working between colleges, universities and training providers were hailed as a valuable asset to Greater Manchester and indicates that we are well on the way to achieving our  vision of being ‘a vibrant and effective alliance of Greater Manchester universities, colleges and other stakeholders that adds value through working in partnership’. 

As we move forward we will build on the successes of collaboration at a strategic level by acting as a conduit between our members and external organisations.  For instance, we will work with our members to inform the Greater Manchester Strategy as it evolves into the Manchester Statutory City Region Strategy; we will work with our members to support the work of Sector Skills Councils and Skills Academies etc..

We will build on the successes of the Lifelong Learning Network (LLN) and continue our work to improve the accessibility of higher education to employers, and to individuals with vocational or professional qualifications. We will extend the scope of the GMSA Pathways information, advice and guidance service to ensure that apprentices and young people studying for the new Diplomas have clear, assured pathways into higher education.

We will continue to work in partnership to share practice and develop more innovative, flexible and work-based higher education courses that meet the training and development needs of employers and their employees.  In doing so, we will develop the GMSA Advance scheme designed to improve information, advice and guidance to employers about bite-sized courses (modules) offered by several higher education providers, enabling employers to shape the content and size of qualifications and enabling learners to progress by accumulating credit achieved into larger university qualifications.  We are already developing partnerships that will extend Advance beyond Greater Manchester

It has been a pleasure to manage the GMSA for the past few years and I would like to thank our members and other organizations for their support. The benefits of partnership working are evident not only to our members but to the wider community of employers, adult learners, young people and other organizations and I look forward to seeing longer term benefits as the GMSA goes forward.

Cath Walsh,

Director, GMSA