Keith
Faulkner
Keith has been closely involved with welfare to work policy since the original announcement
of New Deal in 1997. He was one of a small group of managers who developed the Working
Links concept in 1999 when he was Director of Corporate Affairs at Manpower, working
in conjunction with Jobcentre Plus (then the Employment Service) and Working Links’
third shareholder, Capgemini. The partnership was formed to bid for the 15 Employment
Zones created by David Blunkett as Secretary of State for Employment (it won 9 of
these) and commenced trading as Working Links in April 2000.
Keith’s personal interests span employment policy, the modernisation of trade unions
and education
and he has held a number of external positions that reflect these
interests. For example, he chaired the HR strand of the highly regarded RSA “Tomorrow’s
Company” Inquiry, is on the CBI Public Services Strategy Board and sits on the London
Skills and Employment Board (chaired by the Mayor, Boris Johnson). In the voluntary
sector, Keith is Chairman of the Trustee Board of Training for Life, a Trustee of
the Third Age Employment Network and a Member of the CfA (Council for Administration
– a national Standards Setting body). He also sat on two sub groups of the New Deal
Taskforce addressing the issues of lone parents and improved job retention and,
more recently, the DWP / ACEVO Third Sector Taskforce.
Keith was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to business
and the unemployed in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, June 2002 and became a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2007.