RES report final:Layout 1
22/6/07
12:08
Page 11
Northwest Regional Economic Strategy 2006
Skills and Education BASIC SKILLS Progress: Good progress has been made with targets for the delivery of Skills for Life being exceeded and new LSC/Jobcentre Plus employability programmes being launched. Data: The latest data available is for 2006, but shows a small increase in the number of people with no qualifications over and above the England average. However there are now no districts with more than 29% of the population without qualifications. Implications & further action/ barriers: Delivery on basic skills is now being taken forward under the North West Skills for Life Strategy with specific actions to increase numeracy and adult participation in Skills for Life Programmes. The data would suggest that we are making progress in the most deprived parts of the region in tackling the lack of basic skills, although the progress across the region is not as fast as in England. There will therefore be a major challenge if the region is to achieve the targets set out within the Leitch Review which are 3 times current targets, and ESOL provision could overwhelm existing budgets in future.
SECTOR SKILLS AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Progress: There has been good progress in delivering the skills required by the priority sectors, working through the Sector Skills Councils and the Regional Skills Partnership’s Statement of Skills Priorities. The Higher Level Skills Pathfinder project has also been introduced. There has been some work at a sub regional level to plan for the skills required for specific growth opportunities such as Omega, Kingsway, Capital of Culture and more widely for the rural economy. Train to Gain has been successfully rolled out. Less significant progress has been made in delivering IT skills, language skills and business improvement techniques to businesses. (The lack of progress on IT skills is in part due to a lack of expressed demand – this needs to be better understood.) There is also no specific provision focused on supporting workers to move from declining to growth sectors or on tackling skills disparities amongst key groups. The “skills escalator”, whereby intermediate and higher level skills are developed in a company’s current workforce creating vacancies at lower levels to be filled by local workless people, is recognised as a concept but does not seem to be making much progress in reality. Data: Many of the impact datasets for this factor have not been updated since the RES Baseline report was produced. However there have been large increases in the number and achievement of adult learners studying full Level 2 qualifications and full Level 3 qualifications, and a large increase in the number of students engaged in Foundation degrees putting the region on track to meet its target. Implications & further action/ barriers: If the region is to ensure sustainable growth in the major cities, it must tackle the concentrations of worklessness in these cities and make use of that huge untapped potential. It is not sustainable, economically or socially, to draw more and more people into the cities (usually commuting longer distances) whilst leaving a large number of people workless in these cities. The concept of the “skills escalator” must therefore become a reality. It addresses employers needs for higher skills levels, whilst giving appropriate opportunities to workless people. Stimulating employer demand for higher levels skills is an important part of this equation and the higher level skills pathfinder is important in this regard. Developing Level 4 skills is addressed within a wide range of RES actions but it may be useful to have a more explicit focus on higher level skills, particularly within the context of Leitch. Based on future milestones there does not appear to be a comprehensive plan in each sub region to develop the skills required focused on the key growth opportunities that are being pursued, a reflection of the fact that skills issues are not central to sub regional plans. This has to be of some concern. There are also concerns over the future funding for rural skills development and, based on Sector Skills Agreements, the appropriateness of IT, Language and Business Improvement Techniques for businesses.
page 11
BASELINE UPDATE REPORT 2007