Diplomas remain at the heart of the Government's ambitious 14-19 reforms to enhance retention and achievement amongst young people. By combining theoretical and practical learning and requiring a collaborative approach, schools, colleges, local authorities, higher education and employers need to come together to equip young people with the skills required for success in work and life. This conference brought together key decision makers from schools, colleges, training providers, higher education, local authorities and employers to set out the latest diploma developments. Talking about the basic skills that employers need, Andy Hill, Head of Executive Resourcing at Vodafone commented on how different the language used in education is from business. Diplomas provide an opportunity of "...bridging that gap of communication between education and business", he said.