Improved Skills provision for our region's communities to thrive
Empowering councils to collaborate with local providers to design and deliver training tailored to local economies can work.
of all respondents answered that they support the transfer of more powers to their locality over ‘providing access to skills and training’ to their local area.
(Savanta-ComRes survey for SEC of 250 businesses, 521 members of the public and 264 councillors, January 2024)
of all respondents selected the ‘training and development of employees’ as their top preference for investment priorities in their local employment market.
(Savanta-ComRes survey for SEC of 250 businesses, 521 members of the public and 264 councillors, January 2024)
Local areas have specific Skills needs where a centralised, uniform approach cannot optimise local potential.
To ensure our region has improved skills provision, SEC believes that:
Councils should be empowered to enhance their local skills offers by devolving national skills schemes to the local level, enabling tailored support for community needs.
The Apprenticeship Levy system should be examined to gain an understanding of what could be better managed at the local or regional level including non-levy allocation and unspent funds destination.
The Apprenticeship Levy funds expiry date should be extended to provide a broader training access window.
An annual audit of recently retired/older workers skills and experience should be conducted to help meet gaps for key posts in the labour market.
