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4 Skills Strategy

Overview

Skills performance is a crucial element of any areas’ economic performance, determining its productivity, shaping local wellbeing, and underpinning its industrial and knowledge economy. As set out in Chapter 3, the Heart of the South West is no different, facing a range of social and economic opportunities and challenges over the next decade which require skills solutions if the area is to both achieve additional growth and address individual disparity. Bridging the gap between skills supply and demand will also need to be addressed if the area is to progress.

Skills blueprint

This core strategy seeks to provide that shared blueprint for the Heart of the South West. At its core is a shared vision that:

Every individual in the Heart of the South West should be able to access the skills they need to thrive in a productive job they value, supporting businesses, inclusion and growth.

This vision seeks to put the individual and their progression at the heart of our skills activity, ensuring positive life chances are extended to all. Through supporting and shaping individual advancement, we will provide our businesses with the skills they need to drive a more productive and inclusive economy. Through securing more skilled people, we will enable the area to better address the challenges and take up the opportunities it faces, supporting the economy and our communities to recover from the recent shocks associated with Covid-19, and providing a foundation for future prosperity.

To achieve this vision, the Heart of the South West will focus on three core objectives moving forward, which will drive and accelerate progress around skills delivery and performance. These are:

  • Ensure that our skills and training environment is responsive and forward facing, meeting business and individual need.

    Working with our work based learning providers, whether colleges, independent providers and their networks, schools, universities, or other specialist provision (notably our IoTs. national centers of excellence and providers of community and enterprise education) to ensure that our delivery environment and provision is fit for purpose and able to support both existing business needs and future economic opportunities (notably within key sectors such as advanced engineering and production, clean growth, digital and creative industries, modern construction and health).

    This in turn will seek to address ongoing challenges around individual achievement and business skills uptake, and mismatches between business demand and skills supply.

    Activity will include joint working and projects to ensure that provision is shaped to fit with and drive forward local economic demand / opportunities; is responsive and flexible to both individual and business requirements; is able to support those furthest from the market; and provides a seamless and integrated training offer / escalator approach. To achieve this, partners will seek to best utilise and integrate new capital and revenue support to meet emerging economic opportunities and reinforce existing complimentary capacity, as well as seek to work together to ensure that recovery activity supports those with the greatest barriers to progression.

    As part of the development of this approach, engagement with business and e onomic partners will also be crucial, ensuring that demand for roles is stimulated within key sectors; that workforce provision is business led and co-designed; that essential apprenticeships (at both tertiary and higher level) and other vocational pathways are consistently promoted; and the value of higher and technical skills to business performance demonstrated and championed. This will require joint working to ensure that demand led activity is fully funded (including resources for key business / provider partnerships) as part of the Heart of the South West’s overall skills approach.

  • Ensure that every individual can access the skills and training they need to achieve their own potential.

    Working together to ensure that the Heart of the South West has a skills and training offer that can meet the needs of any individual and support them into or progress through a job which adds value to the wider economy. This will seek to address both the area’s challenges around individual productivity and economic performance; support wider efforts around extending opportunity to all and better enabling access regardless of individual barriers; and expand and enhance our shared labour market for higher, technical and high demand skilled.

    Actions will include:

    • Working together to better support those with barrier to learning or work, developing a shared approach to improving social inclusion and mobility. This will include facilitating new community learning capacity and offers in our most deprived communities; enhancing outreach to our most vulnerable and hardest to reach individuals and young people; and seeking to improve wraparound support for those with a barrier to progression.

    • Providing enhanced careers advice guidance for young people and adults, particularly those with at risk of NEET or economic exclusion;

    • Improving training availability for those in and outside of work who may be able to upskill, but face another barrier to progression;

    • Making full use of new training and learning offers like the Lifetime Guarantee;

    • Securing additional support for those who are long term unemployed; and

    • Engaging and drawing upon other government led skills and work provision that can enable us to harness individual progression, including support for self-employment and enterprise activity which benefits the individual, and ensuring every individual has the digital skills they require to thrive.

    This will require close working with businesses, to promote the opportunities involved in expanding and extending recruitment patterns; capture and fully market their career pathways and new opportunities to those in education and across the existing workforce; and increase demand for higher level skills, technical roles and staff able to lead and enable innovative growth and services.

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  • Ensure that all skills and training investment and activity contributes to both improving our shared prosperity and collective productivity.

    Working together, public, private and skills provider / educational partners will seek to ensure that skills activity and funding is designed to best meet the needs of both the economy and drive social inclusion / shared prosperity. This will seek to address challenges around deprivation and economic exclusion, as well as improve overall supply responsiveness and economic fit of provision.

    This will include joint working around labour market intelligence, economic monitoring and other data to ensure that there is a shared understanding of needs and opportunities; integration of social inclusion objectives in shared investment approaches, focusing on extending opportunities to all; working together to optimise the skills and employment impact of key public and private sector investments, such as new construction opportunities or national significant infrastructure projects; seeking to eliminate barrier s to learning such as around digital exclusion, financial exclusion and challenges around transport access; and seeking to find new solutions and approaches to working in the hardest to reach communities and those facing the most disadvantage.

In taking forward the above, partners will ensure that the skills landscape will both champion economic and social inclusion across the area, as well as support our wider ambitions around sector growth, economic development and productivity improvement.

Productivity and Sectors

The Heart of the South West Local Industrial Strategy (‘LIS’) sets out our shared ambition to transform the local economy through clean and inclusive growth. The strategy seeks to develop a new approach to growth across the area, seeking to decouple economic growth from emission growth, and more widely share the proceeds across people and communities.

As part of this ambition, the LIS identifies 3 areas of significant growth opportunity that it wishes to prioritise over the next two decades, Engineering Futures; Digital Futures; and Energy Futures. Partners believe that these priority sectors have a key role to play in both contributing to Government’s long-term ambitions for national growth, whilst driving forward social inclusion and levelling up across the HotSW’s mixed economy, as well as support wider clean growth.

This Strategy recognises the potential of these three core sectors in driving forward clean growth and inclusion in the HotSW. Whilst every skills and training offer must deliver the transferable skills required to support an individual to thrive in the modern workforce, ensuring that our sectors are provided with the specialist staff they need to drive forward prosperity must be a shared local focus. This will be achieved in the first instance through a focus upon promoting and prioritising their development through our skills investment, creating clear pathways / escalators of progression into and through these three core opportunities areas, providing a ‘no wrong door’ approach to related careers. This will ensure that, regardless of background or prior achievement, a route to a high-quality job in a clean growth sector will be available.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths in the Heart of the South west

30% Of the area’s economic output

30% Of the area’s economic output

12,000 STEM roles advertised

12,000 STEM roles advertised

£10 billion worth to the economy

£10 billion worth to the economy

197,032 employed in STEM

197,032 employed in STEM

£29,712 average salary

£29,712 average salary

Figures are from 2018 and can be found in our evidence base online at www.skillsaunchpad.org.uk

More specifically, we will:

  • Engineering Futures. Seek to build upon the expertise of our universities, colleges and specialist education and training providers to create and support pathways into evolving engineering disciplines, with tailoring around marine, aerospace, photonics, nuclear, civil construction, medtech and defence careers. These in turn will serve wider clean growth ambitions, as well as wider productivity goals.This will include increased support for specialisation within our training landscape; improved linkages between business and training providers to improve the relevance of qualification design and delivery; enhanced opportunities for innovation and higher-level skills development; and a focus on the development and increased delivery of individuals with technical level skills for related sectors. Critical to these outcomes will also be a consistent approach to related careers advice and guidance for young people and adults; maximising the impact of our Institutes of Technology and Centers of Excellence / National College; and better aligning the flow of individuals between secondary education, further education and higher education opportunities.
  • Digital Futures. Recognising the area’s existing strength in training and higher-level skills within data analytics, cyber security and environmental data technologies, seek to create an area wide approach to digital career progression and development. This will include a focus on ensuring every individual has the basic digital competencies required to achieve in a modern role, but also that businesses are able to thrive in a digital environment.Activity will therefore encompass working with schools and other educational settings to promote digital careers and opportunities throughout the HotSW; working with our Colleges and wider training providers to offer a graduated approach to digital training and progression, from basic skills for adults to technical competencies up to Level 5-6; engagement and co-design with employers, universities, colleges and our two Institutes of Technology of relevant qualifications and competences; and development of specialist training and innovation capacity within our Colleges and universities around higher level skills and teaching / management capacity.In bringing forward this opportunity, the HotSW will seek to drawn upon and work intensively with its Digital Skills Partnership, providing a leadership and coordination role amongst partners. Through the integration and enablement of individual and business level digital skills, the area will also drive forward more sustainable work patterns, cleaner outcomes and prepare itself for future changes across the world of work.
  • Energy Futures / Low Carbon Growth. Seeking to build upon the area’s unique strength around nuclear technology and engineering, but also specialisms in green energy, marine energy, photovoltaic, wind, nuclear fission and decommissioning expertise, and clean mobility technologies, providing clear progression and entry routes into related career paths. Through growing our potential in this sector, and creating a world class workforce, we will directly contribute to UK carbon reduction and wider sustainability ambitions, as well as drive individual life chances.This will include accelerating existing careers and information pathways within schools around nuclear and energy / green related careers; reinforcing training and qualification approaches into clean growth based careers, reinforcing specialist training and curriculum delivery in colleges and through the area’s IoT and National College capacity; supporting local leadership and upskilling to access supply chain and other opportunities within the sector; and promoting and supporting innovation by both the business community and our FE and HE institutions and specialist training providers.

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This emphasis on opportunities and clean recovery is also critical in light of the impact of the recent pandemic. With significant disruption across the labour market and economy, as highlighted elsewhere, ensuring that opportunities for renewal are maximised will be key to the HotSW approach towards building back better. As identified through both local and LEP level recovery plans, opportunities sectors provide one key route for achieving this ambition.

In addition to these growth opportunities, the area has a range of broader sectors which are crucial to its economy and require a discrete focus. As both drivers of local economic output and major contributors to local and regional economic, these sectors have a key role to play in driving forward the area’s wider economy, but also providing valuable high-skilled jobs for the future which benefit individuals, communities and wider clean growth. In light of Covid-19, these sectors have also taken on a new priority, either as core contributors to our shared recovery, or in need of substantial additional support due to the distortive impact of the pandemic. We will:

  • Health and Social Care. Seek to work with the health and social care sector to provide new opportunities to enter the sector, promoting the sector as both a valuable career pathway and hub for innovation and productivity enhancement. Support individuals to progress into higher level health or specialist occupations; work to create a culture of learning and recognition of training across all levels; seeking to reinforce innovation approaches through learning; and link together employer, education providers (including further education, higher education and training providers) and community / employment approaches and needs. In doing so, support Government’s wider ambitions around integrated healthcare.
  • Construction. Work with the construction sector to both identify key areas of need and opportunity for the future, including working together around replacing an aging workforce; develop new pathways into apprenticeship and other routes into the trades; promote upskilling for existing construction operatives; and develop capacity for higher value construction training. This will include creating and supporting training to facilitate new methods of construction and sustainable construction. This will also include working together to maximise the opportunities arising from wider developments, such as the need to retrofit our housing stock and develop civils and infrastructure engineering capacity linked to highways, utilities and broadband. Activity will seek to build upon lessons learnt through projects like Building Plymouth and Building Greater Exeter, as well as best practice developed through civils programmes around Hinkley Point.
  • Agritech and Food and Drink Production. Seeking to build on the Heart of the South West’s internationally recognised agricultural / food and drink industries, we will work with the sector to identify formal training pathways and upskilling across the sector, looking to add value to existing roles, support the sectors modernisation and ongoing diversification, and improve local competitiveness. This may include increased investment in robotics, digital technologies and other aligned skills sets which support
    investment and growth, as well as around land management and other science-based approaches. Projects such as the proposed food hub also offer opportunities to align approaches in pilot environments.
  • Tourism, Hospitality, Retail and Leisure. Recognising challenges posed during the recent Covid-19 crisis, but also the importance of these core sectors to our shared economy, work with relevant businesses and sector organizations to accelerate the upskilling and value of our tourism, retail and hospitality / leisure offer, through upskilling of staff, reinforced leadership and management skills and wider customer service and digital capacity across the sector. This will include support for skills within new higher value tourism sub-sectors, including green and sustainable tourism approaches. In addition, seek to maximise the impact of new initiatives and wider business support approaches, such as the South West Tourism Zone, High Street Funds and other regeneration resources to use skills training and skills capacity to support sector development and renewal. Creative Industries. Whilst often aligned with the digital sector, the creative industries play an important additional role across the Heart of the South West, both as part of a external offer to the rest of the UK, and underpinning our visitor and cultural offer. This ranges from film, to publishing, to performance, to design and architecture, all areas of local specialism and distinctiveness. The area will therefore seek to work with the sector to prioritise areas of skills growth, notably around design and creative media, seeking to harness the capacity of our universities and colleges around aligned, high productivity creative roles to encourage local business development, enterprise and innovation.

As part of our sector skills approach, it will also be critical to ensure that there is a firm link between research and development / innovation activity and wider skills and labour market development. In many cases, skills development and knowledge transfer underpins individual business innovation activity, and wider sector performance. This is particularly critical within our higher value opportunities,
including within aerospace, defence, nuclear, marine, wider advancing engineering, health, clean industries and digital sector development. Our higher education institutions, IoTs, Colleges and other research and training bodies will have a core role to play in this integration. However, it will also be important to ensure that a culture of innovation and enterprise is integrated throughout our approach, including working with schools and young students to promote positive behaviours and aspiration.

Geography

The Heart of the South West does not comprise a single economic geography, but is instead made up of multiple labour markets, with a mixture of sectoral, environmental and social strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. As such, any skills approach to the Heart of the South West must recognise these local differences, with a clear understanding of the differing skills, learning needs and requirements of each of our shared communities.

Building on our 3 headline priorities for the Heart of the South West, we will therefore also seek to achieve the following over the next five years in each of the Heart of the South West’s 6 Skills and Employment geographies:

  • Plymouth and its travel to work area. Recognising the manufacturing strength and opportunities associated with our Ocean City, we will build upon Plymouth’s nationally significant capacity in marine technologies and wider advanced engineering, manufacturing and defence excellence. Aligned to this, we take forward the city’s ambitious plans for recovery and growth, and to address
    social inclusion, focusing on maximising the impact of engagement with schools, locally led employment and training activity through the City College Plymouth and the Devon and Cornwall Training Provider Network (‘DCTPN’), higher level learning and innovation activity through the City’s universities, and supporting wider opportunities in areas such as cyber/digital development, health and social care, and construction.
  • Exeter and its travel to work area. As the heart of the area’s knowledge economy, and quickest growing locality, we will seek to maximise the productivity and levelling up potential of Exeter and its wider travel to work area covering East Devon, Mid Devon and Teignbridge. A focus will be placed on the potential of the city as a hub for digital technologies, green growth, advanced manufacturing, and professional / financial services. In addition, partners will seek to maximise the impact of the City’s outstanding College and broader FE institutions, research university, and capacity of DCTPN’s membership to drive ongoing efforts around aligning education and work opportunities; employability and upskilling activity around construction and health; and seek to build digital capacity from basic skills to advanced technical competencies.
  • Northern and Western Devon. Recognising the diversity of the economy and employment within Northern and Western Devon, we will focus on extending opportunities to every rural, coastal and market town location. Building on existing opportunities within advanced manufacturing and engineering (notably within marine technologies), pharmaceuticals, agritech, and tourism and health, we will seek to enhance the capacity of PETROC and wider DCTPN members to support local upskilling and attainment; engage and accelerate local efforts around educational aspiration and economic inclusion; improve local employability and earning potential; and seek to work with the area’s majority small business community to harness local growth opportunities. Improved transport and wider infrastructure linkages may also play an important role in driving upskilling, supporting community prosperity and improving business productivity.
  • Taunton, Bridgwater, Western Somerset and Mendip. Bringing together the key market towns of Bridgwater and Taunton, the nationally significant development at Hinkley Point, and the wider rural and coastal geography of Western Somerset and Mendip, we will seek to harness the mixed economy of the Western Somerset and Mendip area through its skills development.
    Building upon existing strengths in nuclear, advanced manufacturing, digital capacity, health and social care, agritech, construction and tourism, we will seek to accelerate upskilling and earnings through focused employment and upskilling activity This will include building upon the expertise of Bridgwater and Taunton College and Strode College; enhancing the capacity of members of the Dorset and Somerset Training Provider Network (‘DSTPN’) to meet both specialist skills need and wider local provision; supporting the development of University Centre Somerset to provide strengthened higher education provision within Somerset; leveraging high value opportunities around clean growth and energy / engineering competencies emerging from Hinkley Point and development of the Gravity Enterprise Zone; and supporting programmes that further support aspiration and employment amongst
    young people.
  • South Somerset. As a centre for UK rotorcraft and helicopter manufacture, and hub for wider aerospace and aviation technologies, we will focus on maximising the impact of the aerospace and high value engineering / manufacturing cluster within South Somerset. This will include building the capacity of Yeovil College to support the sector, as well as working across wider education partners, with DSTPN partners and other provider capacity to build upon South Somerset’s wider economy, with strengths and opportunities around tourism, agritech and health and social care. A specific focus will be placed upon inclusion and attainment, with support for
    employability, upskilling and clear pathways to work and progression.
  • Torbay and South Devon. Drawing on the mixed economy of the English Riviera and the strength of both South Devon College and the work of wider DCTPN partners, we will focus on maximising the development of existing and new opportunities within the bay. This will include new employment and upskilling within HotSW wide growth sectors such as electronics and photonics, marine engineering, and tourism and wider coastal industries. This will include a specific focus on maximising the impact of any future Tourism Zone in terms of skills and employment. Recognising long standing challenges within the area around inclusion and employment, a specific focus will also be placed upon aspiration and talent retention, seeking to support young people and adults to grow and development within the bay, as well as support companies to upskill, renew and refocus as the economy evolves.

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Covid-19

Whilst this Strategy has been designed to identify the medium to long term skills requirements of the Heart of the South West, it cannot ignore the recent impact of Covid-19 on the skills and education environment. With a 12-14% reduction in local GDP as a result of the pandemic in 2020/21, a trebling of local unemployment (including increasing levels amongst those under 24 by 500%), and significant education disruption for young and people and adults alike, it is critical that the area has a joined up and focused response to the recent downturn.

This strategy therefore seeks to support wider efforts around Covid-19 recovery, building upon the ambitions of local partner recovery plan and the Local Enterprise Partnership’s Building Back Better Framework, to return the area to growth and stability as quickly as possible. The core priorities and objectives set out through this strategy already will contribute to recovery, with a focus on new opportunities, sector renewal, reinforcing individual progression and resilience, and supporting individuals to have the flexibility
they may need in a transformed economy.

However, the impact of Covid-19 also requires more immediate action, with a distinct focus on supporting people through the ongoing impact (which has yet to end as of January 2021) and then into recovery and renewal. In particular, it will be important
to ensure that those individuals and communities most at a disadvantage, and likely hardest hit by Covid 19, are able to access a level playing field of support and opportunity to avoid permanent economic scarring and worsening economic inequalities.

As such, partners intend to prioritise the follow core objectives linked to Covid-19 recovery:

    • Work together to enhance the Heart of the South West’s support offer for young people, both those in and those recently leaving education. Seek to reinforce careers advice and guidance and the transition process into further learning or work / vocational training, with a focus on reaching those most at risk of exclusion. Further promote information about apprenticeships and employment activity to young people. Maximise the impact of initiatives like Kickstart, the Apprenticeship and Traineeship support
      grants for employers and wider mental health, functional skills and other residual support offers.
    • Seek to work towards a single retraining / employment support offer for those leaving work. Seeking to support individuals to upskill and reskill if they wish to do so to find a better job or access new opportunities / sectors. Maximise the impact of initiatives like the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and Skills Bootcamps to fast track individual opportunities. This action includes a focus on supporting those hardest hit by the downturn, notably those currently in furlough, many of which will likely not return to their existing role after April 2021 but may have been outside of work for over 12 months. The offer will also incorporate enterprise / self-employment opportunities as alternative pathways into work.
    • Work across provision to ensure that digital and remote learning offers, and associated pathways to work and learning, are available to all. Seek to ensure young people and adults are able to both access and have the skills to access digital
      training offers and approaches, with a focus on supporting those furthest from the market / most at risk of digital exclusion.
    • Enhance skills and employment support within traditionally harder communities and places across the Heart of the South West. Ensuring that historic gaps in employment, training and educational attainment are not worsened by the Covid-19 crisis through the roll out of tailored provision and support where able and affordable.
    • Work with business support partners to promote and fast-track selfemployment and enterprise activity for the unemployed, those wanting to change career or those that may benefit from an alternative pathway to work. Support enterprise and self-employment activity focused on maximising new business opportunities emerging beyond Covid-19 and
      supporting those who wish to follow the HotSW’s tradition of entrepreneurial behaviour. Support to focus on enhancing skills for
      business, including around business leadership, financial management, customer service, digital competencies and core business skills. Promote enterprise as a career pathway to students and young people, seeking to harness their potential as new business leaders.
    • Work with opportunity sectors to promote a joined-up recovery offer over the next 12-18 months, with a focus on
      fast tracking new employment opportunities, promoting relevant training and apprenticeships activity, and engaging with young people and adults alike about the post Covid-19 opportunities and skills. This will include a focus on opportunities in health, engineering and manufacturing, digital industries and around clean growth.
    • Seek to engage with businesses in the hardest hit sectors to support upskilling and wider staff training where appropriate, promote staying in work to more vulnerable individuals, and supporting redundancies where unavoidable. Recognising that the Covid-19 crisis has had a disproportionate impact on certain sector (notably Tourism, leisure, hospitality and retrial) seek to work with companies and individuals in relevant sectors to support either renewal or transition processes. This will include taskforce approaches in the largest cases, but also local initiatives, pilots and programmes which tailor support too individual sectors.
    • Working with our Colleges, Universities and wider training providers to adapt to the new environment. Supporting providers as they work through any financial or operational challenges and requirements which may emerge as a result of the pandemic