Workshops Engaging the Business Community Dave Webber, BT Cellnet (Helen Malton, Windsor EPB was unable to attend due to the bad weather) Key Issues: Partnerships will not be fully effective unless they provide balanced representation of both the supply side (provision) as well as the demand side (individuals communities, employers). Improvements to workforce development are vital to all partnerships and employers will respond best to the peer group pressure which Learning Partnerships' employer membership can provide. Employers respond best through engagement, for example in specific Partnership activities/projects leading then, for some, to engagement at the Strategic Partnership level. Other points emerging: Employers are just as much customers as individuals are. Partnerships should develop clear views of the benefits for themselves of employer involvement and of the benefit for employers. Employers are reluctant to become involved inactivities which lack their vision and objectives. Large employers could use supply chain pressure to encourage education business involvement by subcontractors (SMEs). Partnerships are well placed to bring order to education-business relationships by the co-ordination of what seem to employers to be multiple confusing approaches (e.g. for work placements and other forms of employer involvement).