Chapter 6: Assessment of Progress
This chapter looks back on the work of the Skills Advisory Board during the past year, and its progress delivering against our skills action plan.
Taking a local leadership role
Regionally, our Advisory Board is playing a leading role on skills. COVID-19 has been challenging on many fronts, however it has also led to more collaborative working on skills, often at pace, to address the challenges and opportunities outlined in chapter three and the action plan in chapter five.
In particular, we are seeking to develop greater collaboration between further and higher education, to improve progression pathways for our residents, address the skills needs of employers at all levels, and to boost the productivity of the regional economy. We have begun work in this area; the role of universities in supporting regional skills and productivity needs was a focus at our last Advisory Board meeting in November 2021. This engagement led to the commissioning of a thematic paper and further research on the role of further and higher in improving productivity (see Supporting Evidence Report).
Enhancing local knowledge
During the last year, our Skills Advisory Board has been well served by nationally recognised capabilities delivered through the WM REDI partnership, the Black Country Consortium Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the WMCA’s in-house research team.
Data Analytics
WM REDI provide regular intelligence updates to key civic and strategic leads across the region, including Advisory Board members, the Mayor of the West Midlands and Chairs of the three LEPs. These reports include the annually produced State of the Region report, which provides an in-depth overview of our people, economy and infrastructure, and outlines key trends around current and future skills needs. In addition, we have commissioned a series of thematic studies to deepen our understanding of employment and skills within the region, and to shape programme delivery. Key findings and actions from the most recent studies are presented below:
Key findings
BME groups perform well in education and are characterised by relatively high rates of participation in post-compulsory education, though success in education does not necessarily translate into employment outcomes
BME groups have higher unemployment rates than white groups and are characterised by lower pay in work. Their employment has been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Analysis is undertaken to establish which parts of the region have low take up of AEB provision among BME groups to shape commissioning of provision in 2022.
Women perform well in education, so issues concerning women's position and performance in the labour market are not just about encouraging an increase in learning or qualification level
Women caring for children (especially lone mothers with small children) face particular barriers in participation in learning
- Develop approaches, models and funding packages to target working women accessing part time Level 2 and 3 provision with Colleges West Midlands
- Deliver the Black Coder digital bootcamps to support BME females to gain employment in digital roles
10% of the regions employees are low paid. When applied to furlough figures this equates to 16,000 workers in the region who could struggle if their employment condition changes following the ending of the scheme.
Birmingham is the main outlier in the region for furlough, with 34,400 people accessing support, at least three times higher than any other local authority area in the region
- Implement and deliver a jobs plan designed to work with employers to connect residents to employment opportunities
- Deliver localised jobs events for residents to highlight live vacancies , conjunction with partners and employers
Older workers who are made redundant or become unemployed , are likely to take longer to find employment than younger age groups
The over 50s face a range of barriers in accessing learning and employment
Employers are less likely to train older than younger workers
- Support for over 50s included in community renewal funder tender
- developing a commission for a redundancy pilot
Over the coming year we will seek to further develop our analytical and insight capabilities. In particular, we are seeking to develop deeper qualitative insight into the ambitions and aspirations of our residents, rather than solely relying on demographic data, to further tailor our provision to support residents to develop skills, find employment and progress at work.
Impact on local skills provision
The devolved AEB is the most significant lever we have to steer and shape.
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AEB now funds more higher-level skills provision than prior to devolution and these increases have come in key employment sectors – digital, health and business and professional.
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There has been a significant increase in training that leads to jobs as a response to the priorities of the Board – working with JCP and Colleges West Midlands - there
is now a full range of SWAPs on offer including new areas of provision responding to job vacancies – e.g. housing officers -
6000 training places commissioned to support employment opportunities linked to the Commonwealth Games
Direction from the Board has shaped and driven the increased higher-level digital skills provision we now have across the region. With successful bootcamp provision available across a range of tech jobs we are responding to emerging and growth sectors.
Covid-19 recovery and renewal plans
Our Skills Advisory Board is a key part of
the governance infrastructure shaping our COVID-19 recovery and renewal planning. While the WMCA Board is the overarching strategic board for economic matters in the region, the Skills Advisory Board is an integral part of our strategic thinking about future priorities, including those related to COVID-19. As such, at our most recent meeting the Board considered the current, long standing and emerging challenges and opportunities referenced in our look ahead in chapter eight.
Skills action plan
This section outlines some of the key elements of our skills action plan that been fulfilled and some of the key areas for development in 2022 and beyond.
Skills action plan
We have developed an online platform - a 'one stop shop' - for young people to access information and advice about the full range of options available to them across the region (i.e the WMCAs Youth Officer)
We have worked with colleges and local authorities to establish new partnerships and ways of working to reduce NEET through prevention. By early identification of those at risk and shared tracking the partnerships have been able to reduce there numbers that become NEET mid-year , the partnership working is ripe for expansion and fuller roll out.
- We are keen to ensure that young people that would benefit from work placements (i.e those that would have qualified for kickstart ) are able to placement or any other support that will benefit them . Our career's related activities in 2022 and beyond are key in helping us to achieve this objective.
We have developed further vocational pathways for specific sectors, including construction gateway provision, the Health & Care plan and bootcamps for digital and creative sectors to ensure clear pathways for progression into jobs are being delivered by our providers to meet local skills needs.
We allocated £21m from the AEB to support the new bootcamps over the next three years with a target of supporting over 4,000 people. These new bootcamps will run from November 2021 to October 2024 and will be delivered by 10 providers.
- For this priority area one of our key areas of development is to continue to commission and develop provision with partners that meets gaps in the employment support framework
We are on track to secure £40m in levy transfer donations by the end of 2023 financial year.
- Supporting the recovery in uptake of apprenticeships which have stalled due to covid-19
Continues delivery of the connecting communities project, our flagship inclusive growth programme that demonstrates 'place based' innovation through a saturation model of employment support for those furthest from the labour market
Join partnership working with JCP to achieve 10,000 kickstart places.
- Continue to develop and seek adoption of the Employment support framework across regional partners