5th Annual Meeting of The OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance

9-10 February 2009 | Vienna, Austria

Every year Forum members from all over the world meet in Vienna to discuss priority issues for partnership working. The 2009 Annual Forum Meeting will focus on ‘Building Strong Partnerships with the Private Sector for Better Jobs and Inclusion’, and will feature contributions from:

Charles Fadel, Global Lead for Education at Cisco Systems, Cisco Board Member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, United States
Deian Hopkin, Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive, London South Bank University, UK
Sally Sinclair, CEO, National Employment Services Association, Australia
Randall W. Eberts, Executive Director, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, United States
Monsignor David Cappo, Vice-Chair, Social Inclusion Board, Australia
… and other leading representatives of business, trade unions, government and community organizations, and partnership practitioners.

Public sector institutions increasingly understand that working with business at the local level is crucial for promoting good quality jobs and social inclusion. More and more regions and localities are attempting to gear education and training to business requirements. They are devoting their efforts to the identification of future employment needs, and the assessment of gaps to ensure that local people have the right training to succeed in the local economy. At the same time, some localities are also looking at upgrading local demand, working with business to improve local productivity and promote good work organization, thus improving the availability of sustainable and good quality employment for local people. This approach is especially valuable in times of economic perturbations when increasingly-vulnerable firms must reinforce their competitiveness to be in a position to secure employment. This approach raises the challenge of providing a collective response from industry, government, educational institutions, trade unions and community to improving economic sustainability and growth. Area-based partnerships have an ever more important role to play in this domain.

Working language of the meeting is English. Travel, accommodation costs and visa fees are covered by participants themselves.

Due to the limited number of places, we kindly advise you to register via http://registration-5th-forum-meeting.zsi.at/ as soon as possible and not later than 12 January 2009. Registration is recorded in order of arrival. The Forum agenda, listing of pre-reserved hotels, visa request letter and further information are also available at: http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3343,en_2649_34417_41681398_1_1_1_1,00.html