For the region’s further and technical education system to grow, it’s vital that skills provision reflects the real needs of local businesses. Our role is to foster greater collaboration between education and local enterprise, giving training providers an insight into these needs so that improvements can be made to the content and delivery of different skills initiatives.

Within the West Midlands and Warwickshire, the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) sets out a roadmap for improving the provision of workplace training initiatives, equipping the workforce with the skills needed to drive growth, innovation and community prosperity.

Drawing on labour market research and insights gleaned from consultations with over one thousand local employers, the plan identifies several priority areas for skills development. Regionally, employers expressed a particular need for the three following skill clusters:

Across all sectors, digital skills have been identified as essential to boosting productivity and growth. These range from basic IT skills to more complex capabilities like data science, automation and machine learning.

Green skills refer to the skills needed for jobs that contribute to climate adaptation and net-zero transition. Many businesses in the region are currently in the process of decarbonising but are struggling to find the skills and people needed to fast-track this journey.

Along with digital and green skills, employers have also expressed concerns about a lack of leadership and management capabilities in relation to the adoption of new digital technologies and energy transition.

Our purpose is to facilitate closer working arrangements between businesses and training providers, putting employers at the centre of the skills agenda so that the provision of training and skills initiatives more closely aligns with local needs.

Using our platform, businesses can register their training needs and communicate directly with training providers to learn more about courses and programmes, simplifying the process of finding tailored training support.

For training providers, we offer the unique opportunity to engage with employers, gather valuable feedback and make improvements to programmes, helping to reshape the regional skills system for the better.