Skills
Building the right skills in our workforce is key to delivering improved productivity and prosperity - enabling all groups to access jobs. While qualifications levels are improving, significant shortfalls remain
in certain levels and geography, holding back growth and productivity. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high - as a growing, young and hyper diverse region, tackling poor social mobility and outcomes is crucial to unlocking inclusive growth.
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Thereare790,800peoplequalifiedtoNVQLevel 4 in the WMCA area. This is an increase of 1.9% on the previous year or 14,600 people, comparable
to the national growth rate of 1.4%. Longer-term since 2012 the WMCA area has also performed better than the national average with an increase in the number of people with higher level skills by 113,000 (16.7%) compared to 14.7% nationally. Despitethispositivetrendjust31.1%ofthe population are qualified to NVQ Level 4 compared to 38.4% nationally - a shortfall of 184,864 people. Qualifications are key to progression, with people qualified to NVQ4+ estimated to earn significantly more than those with lower qualifications. -
The proportion of WMCA residents with no qualifications decreased from 13% (329,800)
- in 2016 to 11.4% (289,300) in 2017 (a reduction of 40,500 people). The number of women
with no qualifications reduced from 166,100 to 145,300 (-14.3%) while men fell from 163,000 to 144,100 (-13.1%). 9.1% of 16-24 year olds have no qualifications compared to the WMCA average (11.4%). To reach the current UK average (8%) requires a further upskilling of 86,036 people. - There were 42,470 apprenticeships in 2016/17 where 22,890 were Intermediate level, 16,480 Advanced and 3,100 were Higher. Overall,
the gender split was reflective of the wider population, but females were poorly represented in STEM subjects accounting for just 3.7% of apprenticeships. Bucking national trends in 2016/17 the WMCA increased the number of Apprenticeship starts by 1% compared to a national fall of -2.9%. However, the latest provisional 2017/18 data shows a fall of -28% nationally since the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in April 2017. - Most young people(aged18-24) in the WMCA are either in work or economically “inactive” (for example as full-time students), but 9.7% were counted as “unemployed” at the end of 2017.
- There were 16,265 youth claimants in the WMCA in May 2018, a decrease a 1.1% from the previous month.
Key indicators
Intermediate - 22,890
Advanced - 16,480
Higher - 3,100
2013 - 27.6%
2015 - 30.4%
2017 - 31.1%
2017 - 38.4% (UK)
WMCA
- 2010 - 16%
- 2011 - 14%
- 2012 - 14%
- 2013 - 14%
- 2014 - 14%
- 2015 - 15%
- 2016 - 13%
- 2017 - 12%
UK
- 2010 - 12%
- 2011 - 11%
- 2012 - 10%
- 2013 - 9%
- 2014 - 9%
- 2015 - 9%
- 2016 - 9%
- 2017 - 8%
- Birmingham - 65.9%
- Coventry - 70.7%
- Dudley - 65.4%
- Sandwell - 63.9%
- Solihull - 71.7%
- Walsall - 65.7%
- Wolverhampton - 65.5%
- WM Met - 67.0%
- England - 70.7%
Deepening our Evidence Base
Building on the evidence work from the WMCA Productivity and Skills Commission we will continue to develop a detailed understanding of the priority skills needs and gaps of key sectors such as digital, construction and automotive companies to continue to inform the delivery of our skills plan.
We will examine the risk factors for youth unemployment and develop approaches to address these.
We will analyse the take up of apprenticeships to test progress in improving access.