Who decides what the local skills needs are?

The UK government published their white paper on the future of Further Education earlier this year. They announced that there would be eight pilot Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) developed by March 2022. These trailblazer projects aim to:

• Build shared understanding around skills needs.
• Extend collaboration between education and training providers and employers to meet identified needs in priority sectors.
• Deploy innovative and effective ways of reaching employers and collating futures skills needs in a meaningful way.
• Translate needs into an effective tool to support providers adapt their offers.

  In layman’s English, the idea is to avoid employers in a city, town or village struggling to find qualified plumbers, web developers, teaching assistants or carpenters etc when demand is high – by creating more long-term collaboration between colleges or technical training companies with businesses and local councils. In reality, businesses and the education sector at a different pace – and it is hard to disrupt that without huge investment and innovation. Traditional qualifications get out of date very quickly in a fast-changing digital world. And small businesses (which make up the bulk of the UK economy) don’t have resources or spare staff to help teach the latest industry standards. Sussex (including East, West & Brighton & Hove) is a complex region with a range of different environments – from the rugged coastline to the small cities of Brighton and Chichester, the rural south downs to the logistics and hospitality eco-system created by Gatwick airport.   Sussex Chamber of Commerce has been chosen by the Department for Education to lead one of the eight trailblazers. always possible has been appointed to lead a number of the consultation workshops, collecting the latest insights and data from businesses across the region, and stress-testing the emerging plans. There is universal agreement that only through a collaborative and joined up approach the Chamber will generate a plan that truly recognises the skills needs – and solutions that colleges, universities and providers will need to implement to address these. To find out more about the Sussex LSIP click here. To read more about always possible’s work on skills, employability and workforce development click here. To hear our interview with Shelagh Legrave, the UK’s new FE Commissioner, click here.

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Further reading and viewing

SES Sector Skills Taskgroups Read a case study about our work with Skills East Sussex to establish five partnership groups in order to explore local challenges and opportunities around skills and employment. These groups were to comprise of leaders in secondary, further and higher education; SMEs; big business; local government and other relevant stakeholders. >>> READ CASE STUDY

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