The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) programmes and support officially ended last night, and key sector figures took to Twitter to bid the organisation farewell.

FE Week first reported on the closure of LSIS in November last year after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills revealed its planned new ‘FE Guild’, now known as the Education and Training Foundation, would take over large areas of LSIS’ remit.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock tweeted today: “With thanks to all those who worked so hard at @LSIS_Updates over these past years to deliver change.”

His Labour opposite number, Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden MP, also expressed his gratitude to the organisation.

He tweeted: “Appreciation/ thanks for what LSIS has done in FE not just for standards but for succouring both individuals as well as institutions.”

The chair of the national careers council, Deirdre Hughes OBE tweeted “#LSIS thank you to Rob Wye, Ruth Silver and the team”, acknowledging the work of the chief executive and chair of the organisation respectively.

Many tweets wished LSIS staff members good luck in their future careers, and expressed hopes that LSIS resources would continue to be available through the foundation.

An unofficial Twitter account, LSIS Countdown, set up to “raise awareness” of LSIS’ closure, tweeted: “An “unofficial” thank you to everyone who has supported LSIS staff over the last few months of the #LSISClosure”

LSIS’ report into the impact it has had on the sector since its creation in 2008, ‘A legacy of learning’ said “feedback and analysis from the sector” showed that LSIS was seen as “bringing the sector together as a community of learning organisations, breaking down isolation, raising performance and offering support across a variety of critical areas of development.”

The Education and Training Foundation marked its launch today with its first board meeting in London.

Speaking last month, David Hughes, who chaired the foundation steering group, confirmed the foundation would be taking over support for LSIS’ clerks’ training and the current cohort on the senior leadership development programme, as well as the excellence gateway, which he said the foundation would “continue and try to review and develop going forward”.

He added discussions over the fate of other LSIS materials were ongoing.

 

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