Older Workers and Carers – the key to employers’ skills gaps

James is an organisational learning and development specialist and has worked as an HR manager, consultant, in-house recruiter and trainer with expertise in both management strategy and HR policies and processes. A former editor of HRreview, James then spent seven years at specialist retailer Planet Organic as the architect of their learning strategy and apprenticeship programmes before moving to Guardian News Media in June 2022. He has continued to work closely with HRreview as a podcast presenter and the regular chairperson of their award winning webinar series, InsideHR.

Highly credible voice on Employee Engagement, Corporate Affairs, Leadership, Inclusion. Special expertise in work-life integration, transition and change, employee life stages, working parents & carers as part of diversity and talent retention.

Kim has over 30 year of experience in the employment and skills sector spanning both operational and policy roles. She specialises in community engagement and regeneration and has extensive experience of fostering partnerships between local authorities and employment services in both the third and public sector.

Katherine Wilson is Head of Employment and Specialist Delivery at Carers UK. Her work includes providing specialist support for Employers for Carers (EfC), Carers UK’s business membership forum, related digital services, and wider work on carers and employment. She has previously worked on employment and equality issues across the public, private and not for profit sectors.

On joining Carers UK in 2007 Katherine worked on the development of EfC and was its initial manager when it launched as an employer membership forum in 2009. She also led on the development of Carer Confident, EfC’s UK-wide employer benchmarking scheme. Launched in 2019, the benchmark assists employers to build a supportive and inclusive workplace for staff who are, or will become, carers and seeks to recognise employers who achieve this.