Ideas-Building

2WayTrust specialises in running national ideas-building events for major organisations and networks across the learning and skills sector. These are led and facilitated by our Director, Pete Ashby.

In February 2010 Pete supported Chris Banks, outgoing Chair of the Learning and Skills Council, in facilitating two one-day events as part of his Review of Fees and Co-funding in Further Education
In April 2010 Pete facilitated an overnight event betwen the Chairs and Chief Executives of relicensed Sector Skills Councils and Commissioners and Directors of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, which followed on from a major event that Pete facilitated for them last December on "Impact 2010". He has now been asked by the UK Commission to lead two further events in July and September
In May 2010 Pete was commissioned by the 157 Group to facilitate an overnight "Visioning Workshop" for the Principals of 157 Group colleges to support them in developing their overall proposition for the new Government
He was also commissioned in May by the Association of Colleges to facilitate an overnight event in Windsor Castle on Higher Level Skills and the challenges facing the coalition Government

In June Pete ran a workshop for ConstructionSkills and members of their Strategic Partnership Panel to support them in generating fresh thinking on their key strategic challenges as a sector

In addition, Pete runs 24 hour events for Boards and Executive Teams to challenge their own thinking on their future development, such as for the Board of the Learning & Skills Improvement Service (twice), Chief Executives in the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils and Trustees of the National Open College Network (in March 2010).

Also, Pete facilitates residential and one-day events for FE Governing Bodies (including, in recent months, Birmingham Metropolitan College, New College Nottingham, the College of Haringey, Enfield & North East London and Havant College). These draw on 2WayTrust's own series of one-day events for Further Education college Principals and Chairs on leadership and performance in FE.

Another one day session planned for November 9th will focus on new models for delivering apprenticeships and is being run in conjunction with the National Apprenticeship Service and National Employer Service. We will be joined by Directors of Sector Skills Councils, professional bodies and key employers involved in taking forward apprenticeships

Across the learning and skills sector, 2WayTrust events are well known for their distinctive groundrules. These are tailored to each particular group whilst being based on certain common principles to ensure that the event is more of a conversation than a conference:

Participants are encouraged to challenge their own assumptions and change their mind at any stage
There are no set speeches and no PowerPoint presentations
All comments are non-attributable and participants take away agreed outcomes – not who said what on the way to achieving them.

Background on
Pete Ashby

Aged 57, Pete Ashby has spent much of his working life as a facilitator, leading groups through highly interactive discussions on all sorts of different aspects of business, government and international policies.

In the mid-70s Pete was Deputy President of the National Union of Students, and then spent a number of years in the TUC Industrial Relations Department. From 1987 to 2006 he was a Fellow of St. George's House, Windsor Castle, where he has now facilitated nearly 200 overnight events for all sorts of leadership teams.

From the late '80s Pete developed his reputation through his leadership of three national think tanks: Full Employment UK, Open Agenda and then for a three-year period after 9/11, the New World Order Forum. During this time, he supported conflict resolution work in Bosnia and led a series of international consultations on the changing world order and topics such as "The Future of the UN".

If you would like to talk to Pete about the possibility of him supporting your organisation or network with an ideas-building event, please e-mail him at pete.ashby@2waytrust.com or give us a call on 01822 880317.

If you need support for an event with raising your top team's performance, please see this page.