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Regional Skills Partnerships
Skills, employment and productivity are intrinsically linked and each region has different needs that require regionally specific solutions. The Government's National Skills Strategy – 21st Century Skills – announced the formation of Regional Skills Partnerships as a means of identifying these regional needs and integrating activity on skills, training, business support and marketing activity.
Under SEEDA's chairmanship, partners in the South East have established the Regional Skills for Productivity Alliance (RSPA), which is driven by the needs of the region's employers. Partners with a responsibility or interest in the national skills agenda are committed to using Local and Regional Alliances to transform provision and business support services.
The purpose of the Regional Skills for Productivity Alliance is to:
- Advise and influence Government by identifying barriers to enhanced skills delivery and improving productivity and offering solutions to overcome them.
- Provide a structure to enable partners to jointly plan against shared objectives that achieve closer alignment of the supply and demand for skills and drive-up demand for skills to improve productivity.
- Maximise the contribution that publicly funded skills provision, workforce development, business improvement and labour market services support can make to the productivity and profitability of businesses.
There are substantial differences in the labour market between the East and West of the region and between the landlocked interior and the coastal fringe. Differing skills needs, priorities and capabilities at a local level have led to the creation of six employer-led Local Skills for Productivity Alliances.
The RSPA will focus on the delivery of key activities including:
News Update
- MPs and e-skills UK launch nationwide challenge to find best use of technology by schools
'Made IT Happen', a new competition for primary school students aged nine to eleven who are using technology to help their school or local community, was launched on 12th February by e-skills UK and the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee (PITCOM).
This UK-wide challenge is looking for student-led projects that show initiative and imagination, make the most of the school’s available ICT resources and can demonstrate fit within the national curriculum. There has been strong interest with schools from Kent, Brighton and Hove, Surrey and Hampshire among the entrants.
The competition will include Regional and National winners. Each winning school will receive a cash prize and a chance to visit Parliament in Westminster to have tea with MPs and meet other winning schools.
Entries can be in any format and should include an outline of the challenge the school faced, a description of how ICT was used by the students to overcome the problem, and what the result was - with a focus on the students' contribution, progress and achievement.
The competition will close on July 13. For more information, visit www.e-skills.com/pitcom/madeithappen.
- Employers back new style of IT degrees at Greenwich
Students taking revolutionary the new Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) degree at the University of Greenwich travelled to London in March to showcase their achievements before a panel of top employers of IT professionals. The employers were full of praise for the knowledge and understanding demonstrated by the students.
Competing against their peers from other universities across the UK, the students undertook a series of team-based challenges supported by employers including: BT, Unilever, Ford, CA, LogicaCMG, Deloitte, IBM UK, BBC, Fujitsu and RBS.
Andy Puttock, General Manager of Products & Strategy at BT Wholesale, said: “The ITMB degree courses are developing graduates with the range of technology, business and communications skills greatly valued by employers. As one of the partners supporting this degree we were delighted to see the level of knowledge and understanding demonstrated by the ITMB students.”
The ITMB degree framework was created by e-skills UK in partnership with employers. ITMB was piloted in 2005 by the University of Greenwich with the support of the South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA). The ITMB degrees will be available in 13 universities and supported by 30 employers from September 2007. For more information about the ITMB degrees, visit www.e-skills.com/itmb.
- Newsbyte
Our award-winning Computer Clubs for Girls (CC4G) programme continues to gather momentum in the region with 760 schools and 16,600 girls registered in the South East. To read the latest CC4G news visit www.cc4g.net.
- South East Social Inclusion Statement - Consultation
(Microsoft Word document 145kb)
- ESF 2007-13
The RSPA is responsible for developing the ESF Regional Framework governing use of ESF funding in the SE region from 2007-13. The new six year SE programme will be closely aligned to the employment and skills challenges identfied in the SE Regional Economic Strategy and by the RSPA. The programme has an indicative value of £153 million in the SE region, and will feature two key priorities- extending employment and developing a skilled and adaptable workforce.
In the spring, the RSPA established an ESF sub-group, chaired by David Steed, GOSE and managed by Jay Hunt, SEEDA to lead on development of the Regional Framework. SEEDA, on behalf of the RSPA have appointed Ecotec as consultants to produce a draft framework by 22 June which will then be followed by a 3 week consultation including 3 sub-regional events. The Regional Framework will indicate how ESF will address distinctive regional and local skills and employment priorities, and will inform the specifications that are issued by ESF co-financing organisations (CFOs).
The aim is for the RSPA itself to sign off the ESF framework by mid-August but this will be subject to European Commission approval of the National Operational Plan. Forward timetable from then onwards is regional launch of CFO specifications on 11 September, initial tender deadline early October, then assessment and appraisal of tenders, pre-contract negotiations with a view to provider activity commencing in January 2008.
For further information please contact Jay Hunt - Email:
Jay Hunt
- 01483 500752
- Training Pools
TRAINING POOLS KEEPS MAKING WAVES!
The SEEDA-funded Training Pools programme recently completed its
second call for proposals from a range of sector partnerships
comprising employers,training providers, employer-led bodies, public
agencies. The Training Pools programme is designed to address skills
shortages and gaps at intermediate level (professional, technical and
craft) which are not already in the marketplace or funded from any
other public/private source. SEEDA received 22 Expressions of Interest
outlining a variety of training solutions and, following assessment
by an independent panel, 9 sector consortia were invited to develop
fully costed proposals by end June. Sectors involved so far in the
programme include retail, marine engineering, construction, financial
services, digital media, surveying, composite technologies, justice
sector and health and social care. Demand continues to be high and the
programme has received very positive feedback from sectors for its flexible, relevant and focused approach.
For more information contact Andrew Adams in SEEDA's Skills and Employment Team -
Email:
Andrew Adams
- 01483 484208.
- Latest from the Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire LSPA
(Microsoft Word document 23Kb)
- Update from the Surrey Skills for Productivity Allliance
Surrey's Skills for Productivity Alliance has spent the spring and early summer developing new partnership links ahead of publication of the Government response to the Leitch Review.
The Alliance membership now includes representatives of Sector Skills Councils and the Skills South East brokerage team. Surrey County Council (one of the County's largest employers) and Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership have also joined recently to add a strong community voice to the Alliance.
A number of Surrey employers have already joined a new demand-led skills forum but Alliance Manager Chris Stanton has many more to contact: “I’m keen to involve any businesses - large or small - who want to ‘put something back’, especially if that involves closer working with FE/HE partners and training providers – or the future workforce currently in our secondary schools.”
Surrey’s first formal employer engagement event, the “Junction 8” Surrey Skills Roadshow (21 June), has provided a good opportunity to highlight the Leitch proposals, involving speakers from local businesses, employer organisations and colleges at a business breakfast and including a facilitated plenary session designed to identify the key skills issues of the local business community.
- Asset Skills - Good Practice Case Studies
1. Chancellors
(Adobe Acrobat document 170Kb)
2. Karen Maxfield
(Adobe Acrobat document 123Kb)
- Creative Media Diploma
(Microsoft Word document 32Kb)
- Ten things about Skills South East
(Microsoft Word document 24Kb)
- Sussex Skills for Productivity Alliance Newsletter
(Adobe Acrobat document 324Kb)
- Greenpower 'GO Goblin'
project
The 'GO Goblin' project will embrace fifty primary schools in two differing areas of the South East of England, East Sussex and Hampshire to compare results from both rural and urban areas. Each school will have up to 20 year 5 and 6 school pupils building and racing a Goblin kit car as a way of introducing practical engineering and technology in an exciting and sustainable way. Each school will work closely with their local SETPOINT and with a Science & Engineering Ambassador from local industry.
Contact Sue Cox: 01483 484 255.
- A Different Approach to Delivering Construction Training
(Microsoft Word document 26Kb)
- Creating Indigenous Growth in Berkshire
(Microsoft Word document 31Kb)
- Employer-led Project Fuels Changes in the Construction Industry
(Microsoft Word document 27Kb)
- Skillfest North Hampshire
(Microsoft Word document 27Kb)
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