Join us for a dynamic half-day Skills Summit exploring how major businesses are shaping the future of the workforce through meaningful investment in skills.
With keynotes and panel discussions, we’ll move beyond best practice to spotlight real action and impact. Discover how industry is powering inclusive growth, building talent pipelines, and future-proofing regions through bold, skills-focused strategies.
Panel 1: From Intent to Impact: Business Leadership in Skills Development
Panel 2: From Projects to People: Building Skills Across the East
You’ll also enjoy a networking breakfast and lunch, with the opportunity to visit businesses and educators exhibiting at the event.
SPEAKERS:
Paul Bristow – Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Paul Bristow was elected as Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough in May 2025. Paul moved to Peterborough aged five when his parents began working in the NHS. He grew up in Whittlesey and attended Sir Harry Smith Community College before studying at Lancaster University.
Paul was first elected as a councillor in 2006 and represented Peterborough in Parliament from 2019 to 2024. As Mayor, he has pledged to ‘get Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Moving’ by dualling A roads, improving rail links between our cities and building light rail for Cambridge. He is ambitious to ensure growth in our region works for everyone, making Cambridgeshire and Peterborough the best place to live and work in the UK.
From Intent to Impact: Business Leadership in Skills Development
Panel Host
Steve Thompson – Chief Operating Officer, Form the Future
Steve Thompson is Chief Operating Officer at Form the Future, a Cambridge-based social enterprise that helps young people access the tools, skills and opportunities to make informed career decisions regardless of their background or circumstances. He leads the organisation’s Operations and Partnerships functions – spanning Finance, Executive Office, People, Systems, Events, Marketing, Corporate Partnerships – and is driving programmes of growth and digital transformation.
With a 30-year career in UK and European digital media and advertising, Steve has extensive experience in business innovation, transformation, strategic growth, and team development. His move to the social enterprise sector in 2022 reflects a long-standing passion for early careers coaching and a strong sense of civic responsibility, shaped by his leadership role in the NHS Test & Trace service during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speakers
Sarah Worsley – Senior HR Officer, Baker Perkins (a Coperion Brand)
Sarah Worsley is a passionate and dedicated people professional, serving as the Senior HR Officer at Baker Perkins, a brand of Coperion. With a career deeply rooted in Human Resources, Sarah combines strategic insight with a genuine commitment to people development.
Central to Sarah’s approach is a strong belief in the strategic value of apprenticeships. She champions these programmes as a critical tool for equipping the workforce with the skills needed today and in the future. At Baker Perkins, apprenticeships are not only a starting point for early careers but also a vital part of continuous professional development for employees across all stages.
Sarah is also a firm advocate for the power of collaboration in shaping successful early careers initiatives. She works closely with colleges, schools, universities, and internal stakeholders — including business leaders and mentors – to co-create clear and meaningful pathways for emerging talent. This early careers strategy helps ensure that Baker Perkins remains future-ready, with a strong and capable talent pipeline.
Helen Dighton – HR Manager, Paragraf
Helen is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD with extensive HR leadership experience across public, private, and start-up sectors. With a background in strategic and operational HR, talent development, and coaching, she has also held senior commercial roles. Recent work in engineering and manufacturing focuses on whole-business delivery and reflects her commitment to continuous professional and personal development. Currently HR Manager with Paragraf, the first company in the world to mass produce graphene-based electronic devices using standard semiconductor processes. With a wealth of applications, Paragraf is committed to materially impacting critical global challenges by driving a 2D-material revolution in the semiconductor industry, which will facilitate massive improvements in the performance of technologies across all aspects of life.
Megan Wilkins – Head of Strategy and Implementation, Cambridge University Health Partners
Megan joined Cambridge University Health Partners as Head of Strategy and Implementation in May 2022. Megan develops and operationalises the CUHP strategy by using insights into opportunities in R&D, healthcare and industry. Her work helps to progress implementation of the Cambridge Vision for Life Sciences, ensuring Cambridgeshire remains a globally competitive place for life sciences talent and investment.
Before joining CUHP, Megan was the Research Initiatives Manager at the University of Cambridge, School of Clinical Medicine. She supported the Head of the School in providing strategic project management and developing new collaborations across academia, the NHS and industry.
Academically, Megan managed collaborative inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor research projects for more than 14 years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL. Megan has a first-class BSc in Pharmacology and Toxicology from The London School of Pharmacy and a PhD in Neuropharmacology from UCL.
Sophie Suchocki – Training & Development Manager. Breheny Civil Engineering
Sophie is a dedicated Training & Development professional who plays a key role in delivering Breheny’s commitment to its people and long-term growth. As Training Manager, she leads the design and coordination of learning initiatives across the business—from onboarding and apprenticeships to upskilling and career progression. Her work ensures employees are supported in a safe, stable environment where they can enjoy their roles and reach their full potential.
Through strategic alignment of training with business goals, Sophie helps drive high standards, continuous improvement, and strong relationships with customers and suppliers. She fosters a culture of openness, teamwork, and pride, keeping employees informed and empowered while contributing to Breheny’s broader commitments to the community.
From Projects to People: Building Skills Across the East
Panel Host
Mel Collins – Head of Regions (South), Skills England
Mel is Head of Regions (South) at Skills England, leading place-based activity across the South and holding national responsibility for the Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIP) programme. She works closely with 38 Employer Representative Bodies to support effective collaboration between education providers and employers.
With a PhD in underwater acoustics, her career began in science at the Met Office, later moving into international collaboration roles focused on early warning systems. She went on to hold leadership roles at UK Research and Innovation, delivering interdisciplinary, globally collaborative research programmes.
Passionate about partnership working, she is also a dedicated volunteer, having served nine years as a primary school governor and regularly visiting schools and care homes with her therapy dogs.
Speakers
Rebecca Britton – Regional Director Communities, Communications and Partnerships, Urban & Civic
Nick Fleming – Head of People Development, Anglian Water
Head of People Development at Anglian Water, Nick and her team’s role is to develop the people and skills required for the largest water company by geography, Anglian Water. Anglian Water serves seven million customers and has 6,000 direct employees and a further 3,000 colleagues through the Alliance Partners and wider supply chain. With ambitious growth plans and an £11billion five year business plan underway, including the building of two new reservoirs, one of which is planned for the Fens, and a strategic pipeline to move water from the wettest to the driest parts of the region, Nick has quite a bit to do!
Personally, you’ll find Nick, either in her first job as Head of People Development or working in her additional role, as unpaid taxi driver to two teenage boys, in all seriousness, having two teenagers, who are grappling with work experiences, career choices, exams and skills give her a very personal and unique insight into what skills means for not only her children, but also, more widely for the people and communities Anglian Water serves.
Stuart Edwards – Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager, East West Rail
Stuart has over twenty years’ experience working across multiple UK transport modes in both public and private sectors including commercial aviation, strategic highways, rail, and nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP) delivery. Stuart is an accomplished external relations leader with extensive experience in front-line operations and strategic communications, specialising in strategy development, policy, and relationship management. He’s also represented the interests of transport users nationally at Transport Focus – the independent watchdog for transport users.
He currently manages and oversees delivery of East West Railway Company’s engagement with business, industry, and academia sectors across the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, and beyond. Stuart is passionate about people, the outdoors, transport, infrastructure and especially where all these areas meet.
Elliott Murphy – Skills Development Manager, Sizewell C
Elliott is the Skills Development Manager within the Employment Affairs Unit at the Sizewell C in Suffolk, the largest project in East Anglia with an expected peak headcount of just under 8,000 employees. He is responsible for leading a team to help successfully resource the project over the next decade. Through targeted education outreach, job aligned pre-employment pathway programmes and a Job Service designed to work at scale, Elliott and Team will work with hundreds of Suppliers to deliver upon this unique opportunity to positively transform local aspirations and capability.
Bringing a wealth of experience from High Speed Rail, Rail, Highways, Nuclear and Energy sectors as recognised through a Construction News ‘Rising Star’ shortlisting and by winning ‘Innovation’ Category at the Social Mobility (SOMO) Awards, Elliott aspires to raise the bar in how Major Infrastructure Projects deliver a lasting Social Legacy.
Location
ARU Peterborough
University House
Bishop's Rd
Peterborough
PE1 5BW