I’m back on the train network again today, this time heading south from London to Southampton, on the Hampshire coast. I’m blogging again for the Department for Children, Schools, and Families – on their FutureStory project.
If you haven’t read any of my earlier blog posts about FutureStory, it’s a programme that aims to help young people understand globalisation. What it really means to them and their future. What it means for their home and community. And what it means for companies that are located near to where they live.
This time is particularly interesting for me because I grew up in Hampshire. Though I was actually born in Frimley, Surrey, I lived in Hampshire (just over the border from Frimley) until I bought my first home in London when I was 22.
FutureStory is delivered by the Talent and Enterprise Taskforce, in collaboration with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, who selected the cities. The delivery partner, Centre for Cities, is an independent think-tank focused on economic trends in cities/city-regions around the UK. The Talent and Enterprise Taskforce is a cross-government Taskforce chaired by the Prime Minister. It was established in 2007 to engage with influential networks and organisations to raise the profile of talent and skills as a key source of competitiveness in the global age.
Lucy Parker chairs the Talent and Enterprise Taskforce and she will be speaking about FutureStory during the event today in Southampton. I’m hoping to capture her on video giving a summary of why it’s important, and who she is hoping to influence.
The short story is that FutureStory aims to promote a wider understanding of how globalisation is changing everyday lives and jobs for the future in an increasingly competitive global economy.
It aims to provide a narrative to help frame and stimulate a broader, more positive and forward looking debate about the strategic direction and success of the UK’s cities and regions when facing the realities of the global economy.
And more particularly:
- To create a national framework for discussions around globalisation in the wider context of the Government’s narrative of growth, optimism and the economy.
- To engage local planners, policy makers and stakeholders in creating development strategies for their towns and cities which take them beyond planning and regeneration, and towards thriving in the global economy.
- To create a narrative for globalisation that makes it meaningful to people by telling the story through tangible examples close-to-home.
I’m going to be taking part in a debate about FutureStory today. Perhaps I should have worn a suit(!) Still, I have a couple of copies of ‘Who Moved my Job?’ with me and that book is written on exactly the same themes as this project, which is possibly why I am so interested in helping this to work. More later, once I capture a few videos of the action today.
mark hillary 