Dr Celia Brigg

1
The North West Higher Level Skills Pathfinder
Dr Celia Brigg Assistant Director (Skills)
2
Outline

• Background
• Aims and Objectives
• NW Model
• Brokerage
• Development of Provision
• Next Steps / Current Progress

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Background

• Skills White Papers (2003 and 2005)
• DfES Grant letter to HEFCE (2006 and 2007)
• Leitch Review (December 2006)
• Regional Economic Strategy 2006-09
• Vision A dynamic, sustainable international
  economy which competes on the basis of knowledge,
  advanced technology and an excellent quality of
  life for all

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Background

• Regional Economic Strategy 2006-09
• Skills and education Level 4 and 5 skills are
  required for growth in the knowledge economy.
  However, the region has fewer people with level 4
  skills than the England average. Although the
  training of new graduates and their retention is
  high, the proportion of the existing workforce
  with the higher level skills required for the
  knowledge economy is inadequate.

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Background

• Today over 70 of the workforce for 2020 has
  already completed their compulsory education
• Leitch set an objective to exceed 40 of adults
  qualified to level 4 and above by 2020, up from
  29 in 2005
• One of the aims of the Leitch Review is to
  increase employer investment in level 3 and 4
  qualifications in the workplace

6
Background

• Already good level of engagement with employers
  and learners in the workplace.
• Build on current activity and enhance offer
• Mainstream activity across HEIs and FECs
• All levels of HE HND, HNC, Foundation Degree,
  Honours Degree, postgraduate level, short courses
  and CPD
• Flexible delivery, bite-sized chunks of learning,
  accreditation

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HEFCE Objectives

• Embed HE in employer workforce development and
  skills strategies regionally, sectorally and
  nationally
• Embed workforce development and skills in HE
  providers strategies
• Promote greater co-funding of HE provision by
  employers

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North West Aims

• Increase demand from employers for higher level
  skills provision
• Increase employer engagement in HEIs and FECs
• Increase the capacity of HEIs and FECs to respond
  to employer demand for higher level skills
• Test the level of funding employers are prepared
  to contribute for development and delivery of
  this provision

9
North West Model

• Two main aspects to the NW model
• Brokerage
• Business Support brokerage IDB Service
• Skills brokerage Train to Gain
• Development of Provision
• Reactive in response to demand identified
  through the brokerage
• Proactive through partnerships with SSCs,
  employers etc

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North West Model

• Brokerage
• Through the regional Business Link
• launched 1st April 2007 (Train to Gain started
  August 2006)
• involves sector specific and generic brokers
• refers higher level activity via the Specialist
  Advisors
• will complement the Skills Brokers and broker
  access to the wider HE offer as well as the
  skills offer
• ongoing discussions re integration of HE

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North West Model

• NWUA support for Train to Gain Skills
• Brokers and IDB Brokers
• 4 Specialist HE Advisors
• Online searchable database of current HE
  provision
• Protocol for joint working between HLSP and Train
  to Gain
• Training of brokers to increase knowledge of HE

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North West Model

• Development of Provision
• Reactive when needs are identified by brokers
  they will work with the specialist advisors to
  link to HEIs / FECs interested in meeting this
  need
• Proactive 4 sectors identified for initial
  focus
• Advanced Engineering and Materials
• Creative and Digital Industries
• Business and Professional Services
• Construction

13
North West Model

• Development of Provision
• Four sector panels convened involving SSCs, NWDA,
  SSPAs and LSC
• Panels produced guidance and issued call for
  proposals, now have assessed first round
  proposals and agreed funding, further funding
  rounds to follow from mid-June onwards.
• Funding available includes development money and
  ASNs

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Current Progress

• 9 projects funded in first round
• Developing information for next call. Panels
  considering providing more specific guidance on
  exact areas for development
• Building brokerage links
• Developing database
• Considering wider linkages e.g. unionlearn

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Next Steps

• Production of rough guides to support all
  partners
• First projects commence, information to be
  disseminated on activity
• Collation of case studies to demonstrate current
  levels of employer engagement
• NWUA Annual Dinner focus on skills and employer
  engagement with Sir Digby Jones, Skills Envoy as
  speaker
• Continued support of HEI / FEC links with SSCs
  and other relevant partners

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Questions?

• Is there potential for linkages with unionlearn
  and union activity around HE level training and
  education?
• What activities would be beneficial to all
  parties?
• Is there existing activity which we could expand
  or enhance? Or are we starting from new?
• What information would be useful to you regarding
  HE?

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Further Information
Dr Celia Brigg, Assistant Director
(Skills) cbrigg_at_nwua.ac.uk 0161 2348891 Fiona
McGregor, Specialist Advisor (Construction) fmcgre
gor_at_nwua.ac.uk 07769 883447 Peter Davies,
Specialist Advisor (Digital Creative
Industries) pdavies_at_nwua.ac.uk 07769 882
487 Eddie Keating, Specialist Advisor (Business
and Professional Services) ekeating_at_nwua.ac.uk
07769 883 460 Karen Lang, Senior
Officer klang_at_nwua.ac.uk 0161
2340438 Virginia Mitchell, Administration
Assistant vmitchell_at_nwua.ac.uk 0161 2340431
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QUESTIONS?
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Advanced Engineering

• Covers Aerospace, Automotive, Chemicals and
  Materials (technical textiles)
• Working with SEMTA, Proskills, Cogent and
  Skillfast-UK
• Other partners NWDA, NWAA, NAA, Chemicals NW and
  NW Texnet
• 5 projects funded
• University of Bolton and University of Manchester
• Lancaster University
• UCLan

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Higher Level Skills Pathfinder - Construction
Sector Briefing
Fiona McGregor Specialist Advisor - Construction
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Sector Footprint

• Covers 3 Sector Skills Councils
• ConstructionSkills
• SummitSkills
• Asset Skills
• All aspects of the Built Environment, not just
  traditional bricks and mortar construction

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ConstructionSkills

• Industry Training Board (1964)
• SSC (2003)
• ConstructionSkills (formerly CITB) partnership
  with CIC and CITB-NI
• Covers SIC codes 45.0 and 74.2
• North West Workforce 270,310
• Growing to 289,820 by 2011

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ConstructionSkills Higher Level Skills Needs -
highlights

• Falls within Qualifying the Existing Workforce
  one of 3 main priorities
• Specific areas identified include
• Modern Methods of Construction
• Sustainability
• Management Supervisory skills
• Technical and practical skills within
  Professional Services Firms

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SummitSkills

• Covers the Building Services Engineering sector
  (e.g. electrotechnical, heating, ventilating, air
  conditioning, refrigeration and plumbing
  industries)
• 58,000 people work in this sector in the NW
• Employee skills more closely linked to
  engineering than traditional construction trades
• Stage 3 of developing their Sector Skills
  Agreement, using a bottom up regional approach

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SummitSkills Higher Level Skills Needs -
highlights

• Technological Change
• Renewables technology e.g. solar and photovoltaic
• Diversity
• Practical IT skills
• Generally a reactive sector rather than proactive
  

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Asset Skills

• Covers the Property, Housing, Cleaning Services
  and Facilities Management Sectors
• For the purposes of the HLSP/Construction sector,
  only facilities management and some aspects of
  housing property are included
• Currently at Stages 4/5 of their SSA
• In the NW 36,000 employed in the housing and
  property sectors, facilities management employs
  c3,000

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AssetSkills Higher Level Skills Needs -
highlights

• Overall the sector underperforms by around 200
  million in the NW
• Lack of HE provision generally
• Undersupply of town planners
• No career pathways limited facilities
  management provision
• Diversity issues, particularly within the
  surveying sector

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HLSP Development Funding

• First round recently completed
• 1 application funded new MSc at Salford
  University
• Will enable managers/senior managers to gain
  underpinning knowledge for CSCS cards/NVQ 5
• Second call for applications begins 15th June,
  deadline for proposals on 30th July 2007

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Further Information
Fiona McGregor, Specialist Advisor
(Construction) fmcgregor_at_nwua.ac.uk 07769
883447 Debbie Hatton, Regional Strategy Adviser,
ConstructionSkills Debbie.hatton_at_cskills.org 078
76 577565 Rob Wellman, Operations Manager,
SummitSkills Rob.wellman_at_summitskills.org.uk 07834
868954 Lisa Lister, Regional Manager, Asset
Skills llister_at_assetskills.org 07795 388 510
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F P Services in the NW

• The North West accounts for 7 of all financial
  services output in the UK, and 10 of all
  employment
• Manchester is Englands second city for FPS
• 322K employed 11 of the regions workforce
• Circa 53K jobs growth between 1998 2004
• GVA growth 7.8Bn to 11.7Bn

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FSSC Skills Data

• Expansion in supply of financial skills is
  limited
• Productivity growth via increased investment in
  the
• skills of the current workforce
• NW employers are reporting extensive skill gaps
• - Lack of team working skills
• e.g. among professionals and technical
  staff
• - Industry knowledge in customer service
  staff

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Asset Skills Housing Sector

• Housing Management
• Future expansion exacerbate current recruitment
  difficulties
• More effective employer engagement with FE HE
• FE / HE courses not matching needs
• Provide flexible and bespoke courses.
• Core housing management curriculum
• Development of Leadership Senior Management

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Asset Skills Property Sector

• Buying Selling of Property / Letting of
  Property
• Licensing of Estate Agencies
• Address Industry wide Skill gaps