A GROUNDBREAKING conference will take place in Brighton next month.

Organised by the Brighton and Hove Education Business Partnership and the council's education and lifelong learning department, the event is designed to develop links between business and education in the town.

The afternoon gathering will explore ways in which businesses and education services, including schools, can work together.

Keynote speaker will be John Reeve, chief executive of Brighton-based Family Assurance, a company which is already involved in several education-linked programmes including a volunteer reading scheme at one primary school.

The groups in the partnership range from education providers to local businesses and include Sussex Enterprise, Brighton College of Technology, Brighton & Hove Council, Sussex Careers Services and East Brighton Education Action Zone. Since its launch last year a string of programmes have been run with schools.

They have included mentoring programmes linking head teachers with business executives and Year 10 pupils with employees.

In addition, volunteers from businesses in Brighton and Hove are about to start a project visiting local primary schools during their lunch hours to organise games designed to boost numeracy.

The volunteers include the entire Brighton & Hove Albion Youth Team, and staff from HSBC, Scottish Power and Age Concern.

Brighton and Hove executive councillor for education, Frieda Warman-Brown, said: "The Education Business Partnership is proving extremely fruitful as both sides are able to share expertise and often find a lot of common ground."

Businesses or other organisations interested in attending the February 7 event, which will run from 1.30pm to 5pm, should contact Jenny O'Connor on 01273 293534.

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