Looks like some people have been listening - in Wales at least. A 37m scheme to boost leadership skills in the regions was launched this week.

The report chimes with Tony Manwaring (Tomorrow’s Company) essay in the latest Working Nation report - in which he predicts that all future skills will need be developed with a view to the wider social and environmental picture if we are to be successful. See the report here.

Of course this accusation by no means applies to most people in the financial sector, but it does raise the thought that the Skills Academy would do well to take a look at the essay from Tomorrow’s Company’s CEO Tony Manwaring featured in the latest Working Nation report.

Tony argues that skills do not exist in an isolated box, and, indeed, should be developed with thought to their social consequences. “Today, it is more important to think about how you integrate skills with the broader contribution to sustainability that an individual is making,” says Tony. “This can only be achieved by identifying what people care about – uniquely and individually – and then developing the overlap between individual and corporate priorities.”

The full essay can be read in the Skills of Work Working Nation report.

The Skills Academy highlights other research that has shown that just four per cent of training fulfils its true potential, while a typical company spending £10K on training - without a proper training programme - may lose up to £6K. 

The new ‘Learning Engine’ programme will identify the needs of the employer and match them to the most appropriate training – ensuring that the business receives the most appropriate and cost effective skills support at a time when they need it most.

Bob Gibbon, managing director of the Skills Academy, told us: “In a recession, this type of support is more important than ever because businesses may need to adjust their focus or adapt to a new pace of work. Their whole business model might need to change and they will need the right skills set to react.”

To raise industry awareness of the crucial role in skills and learning in helping UK manufacturers to beat global competitors, The Skills Academy has also established the new Skills Development Award, part of the Findlay Media/Cranfield School of Management’s Best Factory Awards.  The award aims to recognise companies who have built sustained competitive advantage and value creation through investment in training. 

The 2009 winner of this award was Power Panels Electrical Systems, one of the contributors to the latest Working Nation report.

As reported in the Daily Mail yesterday, “Research by the Future Laboratory, a consultancy for trend forecasting, shows that the future of business is set to be feminine – emphasising the collaborative, lateral thinking and creative skills found in the right side of the brain: this being the side that women favour naturally, while men favour the left with its rational, logical, analytical qualities.”

There seems to be a little stereotyping going on with the claim that this new order will mean less testerone fuelled risk taking, but to to be fair the report is not so much about the qualities of men versus women, more a case of how attitudes need to change across the board in order to make the future of business more sustainable. Successful companies like Google are cited as examplars for their apparent ‘right brain’ thinking. As the Daily Mail article puts it, it’s not so much about how many women a business employs, it’s about a company’s ability to respond to the fast-changing times. 

Clark’s argument is that fliritng is all about basic good communication skills - something she feels that the younger generation are losing at work because they are working too hard on getting ahead and neglecting their social development.

For anyone wanting to find out more the book is out now. It also includes tips for those that are looking for a partner, and, crucially, that grey area where the boundaries start to blur. Proceed with caution. 

The company has also been kind enough to forward us this video case study, in which you can hear from people across the company how they have not only learnt new skills, but how to implement and apply them in a live working environment.

One of Tony’s themes is that it is a mistake to think that we are all in the same boat, and therefore do not need to do more than ‘batten down the hatches’ to ride out the recessionary storm. His view is that leaders should be comprehensively re-thinking what their organisations need to do to be relevant and successful in the new economic environment that will come after the recession. It will not be business as usual in his opinion.

He also suggests that faced with the necessity of making redundancies managers are open and honest in their conversations. Too many people have a linear view of the relationship between worker and employer - we either need you or we don’t. He’d like to see both sides working harder to build a sense of shared community that can allow people to leave, but are retained in a network of shared interest that would see them willing to come back when their skills and experiences are needed.

Click the play button to view the video and, as ever, please let us have your thoughts and comments.