Public Sector

Regional Skills Partnership

West Midlands

The West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership aims to make positive changes to the ways skills are delivered to improve the regional economy. It has been established to lead the skills agenda in the West Midlands and act as a catalyst for real change. It aims to create a simple demand-led approach to skills that aligns supply with the needs of employers, individuals and the regional economy.

There's no doubt that a workforce with the right skills drives successful business. With the UK facing increasing competition from overseas, there's never been a more pressing time for organisations to invest in their people. And for people to invest in their future.

The Government has identified Regional Skills Partnerships (RSPs) as a major component of the National Skills Strategy. The aim of RSPs is to create a demand-led approach to skills and to give regions the flexibility to tackle their own individual challenges and priorities.

The West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership aims to make positive changes to the ways skills are delivered, to improve the regional economy. It is acting as a catalyst to encourage change amongst the following four groups;

employers as they look to access the skilled people they need, make effective use of their employees' skills and invest in the development of their workforce,
individual learners as they look to develop skills to get a job and advance their career,
training providers such as universities and colleges, so training and business support is better aligned to the needs of employers and individual learners, and
organisations that fund training and development, so this matches the region's common priorities.

The West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership has been established to lead the skills agenda in the West Midlands and act as a catalyst for real change. It aims to create a simple demand-led approach to skills that aligns supply with the needs of employers, individuals and the regional economy.

The priorities for action were first defined in January 2005;

base our work on sound information and analysis,
we will use an evidence-based approach to ensure our plans stand up. Employers have already provided us with a lot of information on future skills needs. We need to use this to inform the analysis of the West Midlands Regional Observatory and help us further develop our strategy,
ensure that employers' needs are met by appropriate training and business support,
work to make access to business support and training easier, and to ensure that the type and style of support meets the needs of employers and individuals,
encourage and enable employers and individuals to improve their performance by investing in skills,
we need employers to be clear on what their current and future skills needs are, and individuals to understand which skills they require to be competitive in the job market. We also need a better understanding of what the barriers are to employers and individuals investing in skills, and
the best performing organisations in the West Midlands are using the skills and talents of their people to produce high quality, world-class products and services. More people in are needed in the region to develop their skills, to drive forward the economy and enable individuals and employers to reach their full potential.

Some of the headline issues about skills levels in the West Midlands are;

the regional economy is shifting. Services now take prominence over manufacturing, bringing with them increasing demands on managerial, professional and customer-facing skills. At the same time, industries based on new technologies require job specific, technical and practical skills,
over the next decade there is forecast to be a 30% increase in demand for degree level qualifications and a 20% increase in demand for higher degrees. At the same time there will be a 40% decrease in demand for those with no qualifications,
the existing workforce in the West Midlands lacks the skills that employers require for their organisations to develop and grow. A third of the region's employers cite such skills gaps,
minority ethnic communities and older people are set to make up an increasing proportion of the workforce over the next decade. Employers will need to make good use of these sections of the population in order to address recruitment gaps,
the region is poor at retaining graduates - more than half take a job outside the West Midlands. Many of the graduates we do hold on to are employed in low level jobs that do not fully exploit their potential,
The West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership Regional Skills Assessment 2006 highlights the key issues impacting on skills in the region, and
the regional skills assessment makes no specific mention of sustainable development or resource efficiency but does include issues on skill requirements for energy in construction and land based industries.

The highlights of the report contain the following;

The benefits of investing in skills

If the potential for economic and employment growth is to be realised and benefit an increasingly diverse population, significant investment in skills is required by both employers and individuals:

Research indicates increased investment in training and up-skilling by employers leads to a 4% increase in value added per worker and a 1.6% increase in earnings

Investment in skills by individuals increases participation and progression in employment. Access to employment and qualification levels are strongly correlated and attainment of a qualification at any level will improve the likelihood of accessing employment

Employers’ strategic skill needs

Employers need to develop a range of critical skills in order to boost their productivity and profitability and exploit emerging market opportunities. These include;

management and leadership skills to ensure the effective development and deployment of the skills and aptitudes of the workforce and stimulate innovative activity,
skills to support innovation relating to entrepreneurship and the development of an ‘ideas culture’, creativity and unconventional thinking, adaptability and multi-skilling and skills in networking and collaboration, and
specific technical and a range of generic higher level skills to support the adoption and exploitation of new and innovative technologies, products and processes.

For ‘knowledge based’ companies, talent and education become the most valuable assets, and the decisions they make on the location of knowledge intensive activities are likely to be increasingly linked to the pool of highly qualified workers into which they can tap. At the same time, however, knowledge is becoming a more ‘tradable’ commodity and knowledge intensive companies are increasingly accessing higher level skills on a national and international basis. It will be important to gain an understanding of the extent to which this is happening in the West Midlands.

A range of specific skill needs are also emerging in sectors acting as key drivers of growth in the region such as hotels and catering, retail, computer services, business and professional services, health and care, creative and cultural industries and medical technologies.

Skill gaps and deficiencies

While the proportion of the regional workforce with skill deficiencies is reducing, significant problems remain within certain sectors and occupations, inhibiting the potential for growth and development. In particular;

the proportion of staff with skill deficiencies is around double the regional average in retail and hotels and catering, with particular issues for sales and customer service staff. While the proportion of companies identifying gaps in specific technical skills has risen sharply there are also growing problems with gaps in generic or transferable skills such as problem solving, customer handling, team working and management,
indeed management and leadership skill deficiencies are well above the national average in a range of sectors, which is having a negative impact on employer ability to effectively deploy the skills of the workforce and on innovation,
the region also has a relatively low proportion of highly qualified workers in the private sector, who are critical to support the adoption and exploitation of new and innovative technologies, products and processes. While the proportion of people working in ‘traditional’ graduate occupations, which are predominantly in the public sector, is above the national average the proportion working in other graduate occupations typically found in the private sector is much lower, and
it is notable, however, that computer services industry employs a significant proportion of people with higher level skills and that the proportion of highly qualified people is increasing within the Region’s professional and business services ‘cluster’ as a whole. The cluster is still relatively under developed in employment terms relative to many other regions and there is potential for further growth in ‘knowledge intensity’ in the future.

Recruitment problems and skill shortages

Many companies are struggling to address their skill needs via the recruitment of skilled and experienced people from the labour market. The region has the highest proportion of ‘hard to fill’ vacancies due to skill shortages in the country. Skill shortage problems are particularly acute;

in the engineering and construction sectors where skilled manual staff are in short supply, and
in business and professional services where there are shortages of associate professional and technical staff.

Training and up-skilling the workforce

Given that the region has the worst skill shortage problems in the country and, given that skill gaps remain significant in key growth sectors and occupations, it is vital that companies invest in the training and up-skilling of their staff. Encouragingly the proportion of employers with skill gaps and deficiencies investing training is the highest in the country. Overall, however, the proportion of companies investing in training is low relative to other regions and the region has the lowest proportion of staff undergoing training in the country. This suggests that many without immediate skill gap problems may not be up-skilling their workforce for the future.
Many companies, and smaller firms in particular, cite a range of barriers that limit their ability to invest in training and up-skilling:

operation within price sensitive, low margin markets that limit business resources for training investment,
high staff turnover which can lead to a lack of employee interest or commitment to invest in their own skills, while employers may feel that they are unlikely to recoup the cost of any investment,
training not being seen as part of the long term business strategy, and
a preference for more informal methods of up-skilling staff, suggesting a need for the development of appropriate provision.

A range of specific skills and attributes to support innovation have been identified in key target clusters identified in the region by the Innovation Technology Council.

Skill Needs for Innovation in Key Target Clusters

Construction & the Built Environment

Building services: system design and pumping, water treatment, power flushing, energy efficiency and sustainability, photovoltaic energy sources and environmental technologies

Construction Skills Summit Skills

The sector’s skill needs are changing significantly, underpinned by innovation relating to sustainability, new construction techniques like offsite manufacture (pre-fabrication), novel materials and smart technologies.

These changes are likely to eventually lead to a lower demand for bricklaying and plastering, a need for multi-skilling in on-site assembly and for fitting skills like electrical and plumbing to be used in the factory rather than on the building site. There are also skill implications in the areas of installation and maintenance such as system design and pumping, water treatment, power flushing, building regulations and energy efficiency.

Lantra

Emerging skill needs include a multi skilled workforce and better developed management skills to cope with the increased diversification of the sector, better management skills to deal the use of contractors, volunteers and part time and migrant workers, better marketing skills to promote value added products from diversified businesses and exploit opportunities from latent local markets, skills to exploit new technologies and compete in a global marketplace, skills in environmental management and knowledge of health and safety issues.

West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership Priorities Action Plan

This plan sets out a number of regional priorities for development of skills. Developing skills for sustainable development forms part of this and the table below shows the priorities which link into the achievement of sustainable development through the operation of the proposed Centre.

Priority Area	Key Sub Priority
II. Align and integrate the supply of training and related business support to the (current and future) demands of employers and individuals	4. Integrate skills support with business development support to raise demand for skills and encourage enterprise within organisations.
	5. Develop the skills of the workforce – particularly to expand training for basic skills, level 2 and level 3 qualifications.
	6. Develop higher level skills for high value products and services.
	11. Build skills for enterprise – business start ups and spin outs.
III. Ensuring employers and individuals play their role.	12. Employers to work within existing networks.
III. Ensuring employers and individuals play their role.	13. Raising individuals’ aspirations.

The West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership Regional Skills Assessment 2006
The West Midlands Regional Skills Partnership (RSP) was established to lead the skills agenda in the West Midlands and act as a catalyst for real change. It aims to create a simple demand-led approach to skills that aligns supply with the needs of employers, individuals and the regional economy.

The RSP have identified a number of key issues about skill levels in the West Midlands, these include;

industries based on new technologies require job specific, technical and practical skills,
the existing workforce in the West Midlands lacks the skills that employers require for their organisations to develop and grow. A third of the region's employers cite such skills gaps,
if the potential for economic and employment growth is to be realised and benefit an increasingly diverse population, significant investment in skills is required by both employers and individuals,
specific technical and a range of generic higher level skills to support the adoption and exploitation of new and innovative technologies, products and processes, and
a preference for more informal methods of up-skilling staff, suggesting a need for the development of appropriate provision.

Key Target clusters in the region have skills needs in:

Building Services: system design and pumping, water treatment, power flushing, energy efficiency and sustainability, photovoltaic energy sources and environmental technologies.
Construction Skills: the sector’s skill needs are changing significantly, underpinned by innovation relating to sustainability, new construction techniques like offsite manufacture (pre-fabrication), novel materials and smart technologies. There are also skill implications in the areas of installation and maintenance such as system design and pumping, water treatment, power flushing, building regulations and energy efficiency.
Land Based Industries:skills to exploit new technologies and compete in a global marketplace, skills in environmental management and knowledge of health and safety issues.