Working to improve job opportunities across South Yorkshire
One of the best ways to improve job opportunities for local people is by making skills training more responsive to the particular skills needs of local employers. But too often a lack of collaboration between our skills providers and businesses ends up leaving people without the right skills for the jobs on offer.
In common with other regions, here in South Yorkshire our skills and employee relationships are somewhat fragmented with limited comprehension of the interdependence between the two.
Our local employers know what skills they need now and will likely need in the future – but it is less clear that our colleges and skills providers, local authorities and associated organisations are delivering those skills.
South Yorkshire has perhaps not always recognised the value of working across local authority boundaries, and the benefits this can bring to regional economic development. By better integrating our economy - including our training and skills system - we can help to deliver on our ambition to level up our communities. I'm pleased therefore that organisations from across South Yorkshire have come together to submit a bid to government to become a Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) Trailblazer. Led by local Chambers of Commerce, this broad coalition will deliver the skills businesses need to grow in the post-COVID era. If successful, the plan will unlock £4 million to train skilled workers and help them into work.
The bid has been backed by Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership, as well as the major training and education providers of the region, including further education colleges and universities. The LSIP plan would see these key players in the South Yorkshire economy work more closely together than ever before to deliver on the skills needs of business. That is why I am proud to support the bid for South Yorkshire to be a trailblazer scheme.
This strategic alliance between providers and employers will assist in predicting long-term skill and knowledge requirements, allowing us to focus on planning for the future instead of trying to fill in the gaps after they become evident.
Key focus areas will include:
- delivering high impact interventions and a strategic approach to delivery
- bringing employers, colleges and other providers, and local stakeholders together
- tailoring provision to the challenges and opportunities most relevant to the local area.
Meeting with leaders of the Sheffield Chambers of Commerce to discuss the bid we agreed on the immense opportunity it represents for South Yorkshire, and having signed the joint supporting letter from all the county's MPs, I am now making the case directly to Ministers in the Department for Education to grant South Yorkshire 'Trailblazer' status.
As a showcase and pilot programme the LSIP represents an opportunity for South Yorkshire to lead the way in integrating the stakeholders in the regional economy. It will be closely watched by other areas across the country keen to understand how a ‘South Yorkshire Solution’ could help them to address their own skills challenges. In the past there have not been many opportunities for this kind of innovative, collaborative working in South Yorkshire, but I see no reason why we shouldn't stand alongside other great city regions.
The LSIP bid brings together:
- Chambers of Commerce from across South Yorkshire - Doncaster, Sheffield, and Barnsley and Rotherham
- All South Yorkshire MPs
- Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority
- South Yorkshire's world-leading universities
- SY Colleges Group – Doncaster, Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Dearne Valley, Northern College, and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre
- Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership
- Some of the region’s leading STEAM related employers
- Business groups such as the Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, International Trade Forum, and Institute of Directors
