Agenda item

Introduction - Andrew Lloyd, Chief Executive, Rushmoor Borough Council

Overview of Enterprise M3 and Solent LEP Skills and Employment Strategies – a presentation by Kathy Slack, Director of Enterprise M3 LEP

Roundtable discussions led by:

·         Tim Jackson, Principal of Sparsholt College and representative for Sixth Form and FE Colleges in Hampshire

·         Professor Elizabeth Stuart, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Winchester

·         Major Jodie Kennedy-Smith, Career Transition Partnership, Armed Forces

·         Kathy Slack, Director of Enterprise M3 LEP

Feedback and consider any future role for The Partnership

Andrew Lloyd, Chief Executive of Rushmoor Borough Council, introduced the workshop on skills and employment in Hampshire, the content of which had been developed following a discussion at a previous meeting of the Partnership in September 2014.

Kathy Slack, Director of the M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) gave a presentation to set the scene. It was noted that the presentation included data from both the M3 LEP and the Solent LEP, and had been produced using data provided by the Hampshire County Council research and intelligence team.

Following the presentation, members of the Hampshire Partnership were divided into four discussion groups, facilitated by: Professor Elizabeth Stuart from University of Winchester, Tim Jackson from Sparsholt College, Major Jodie Kennedy-Smith and Kathy Slack from the M3 LEP. The groups were invited to discuss what they had heard, what role there may be for the Hampshire Partnership in the skills agenda, and what their priorities for action were.

Following the discussions, the groups were invited to feed back their key points:

·         that there was an issue regarding whether Further Education colleges were delivering the skills the local economy needs, which was affected by the choices and motivations of young people

·         careers advice and guidance for young people (and older people seeking to change career) was important

·         the university route was often perceived to be of higher value than apprenticeships – this attitude needs to shift as some people were better suited to the apprenticeship route

·         many businesses in Hampshire are small or self employed individuals, which means they are ‘time poor’ in terms of being able to release staff for training. The training offer was currently not flexible enough to meet the needs of these people

·         The presentation highlighted that there is a lot of work going on in this arena already, however there is a potential gap in co-ordination between schemes and facilitating links between the parties involved

·         Members picked up on the slide from the presentation which highlighted the number of agencies offering career guidance initiatives. It was suggested there was a potential role for the Partnership to consider how these schemes worked as a whole, to ensure public funds were not duplicating effort

·         The group looking at forces personnel leaving the forces and seeking civilian employment noted there were opportunities to support forces personnel e.g. reservists mentoring standing army personnel. A barrier to forces personnel remaining in Hampshire may be affordability of housing

Andrew Lloyd summarised the themes which had emerged:

·         The importance of appropriate advice and guidance on skills and employment options

·         apprenticeships are undervalued

·         There is a lot going on supporting skills and employment but it could be better coordinated, facilitating a joined up approach between the bodies involved (noting schemes exist across the public sector and private sector)

Priority areas where tangible actions could be taken were suggested as follows:

·         Opportunity to pool resources and share good practice

·         Using technology effectively e.g. making applying for apprenticeships easier

·         Making greater use of the Chamber of Commerce e.g. to help give credibility to the apprenticeships route as they have a good reputation and can reach small businesses

·         Use technology to reach ‘time poor’ learners e.g. courses that can be accessed remotely such as the Open University

·         Role for the Partnership to facilitate a strategic conversation between schools, colleges, employers and universities, to identify skills needs in Hampshire and how to meet them

Andrew Lloyd thanked the facilitators. It was concluded that themes had emerged from the discussions, which could be built upon to take this work forwards.

The Chairman indicated that the discussion from the workshop would be written up, and an item would be brought back to a future meeting of the partnership to decide what action to take as a result. There appeared to be a role for the partnership to provide a co-ordinating role.