LSIS has unveiled a new futures planning initiative for the learning and skills sector.

Harnessing a unique online survey tool which will gather the wisdom and insights of the entire sector, the Scenario planning: plan for your future project will enable providers to bring about cultural change in their organisation, and rise to the challenge of ‘discontinuous’ change.

The initiative has been designed to help improve the sector’s scenario planning culture and to strengthen its organisational resilience.  Decisions which providers take today will have ramifications reaching far into the future, but – at a time of significant change within the sector – they are finding it increasingly difficult to visualise the further education and skills landscape over the next five years.

With this new project, LSIS aims to ease the process of actually creating cultural change by enabling organisations to plan more effectively, to reduce and mitigate risks, to understand the drivers of change, to identify the range of choices ahead, and to ensure that their views of the future are in alignment with other thinkers in the sector. 



The first stage of Scenario thinking: plan for your future involves an online activity to gather ideas that are thoughtful and meaningful, to sort and prioritise them, and to draw out emerging themes and concerns.

The tool, developed by the LSIS Resource Utilisation team, combines sector-wide ideas and analysis in real-time on a scale that is unachievable by conventional means. 

As the process develops and more people contribute, the bank of ideas will grow, creating a comprehensive record of the sector’s perspectives on the future.

Participation in the online survey is anonymous and the data gathered will then be used in the second part of the initiative - a series of follow-up seminars, workshops and meetings that enable colleagues to explore the results in a professional dialogue with others. 

How to sign up

We would like to ask you to join in and contribute to this unique exercise then please send the following:
• your name; and
• your email address
to:  Stephanie Birch at ideasbank@lsis.org.uk

View our video below to discover how the programme works.

For further information, e-mail us at: communications@lsis.org.uk.