Skills for Business in Gloucestershire

As part of our mission to drive growth in Gloucestershire, we’re creating jobs and business opportunities. To make the most of these, we’re giving people the skills they need to get the jobs they want.

As a Local Enterprise Partnership, we’ve been tasked by the government to provide the strategic leadership necessary to set economic priorities and create the right environment for business and growth.

In our Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), we’ve committed to providing the county with a highly employable and economically productive workforce by 2022, which meets the needs of local businesses and high-value growth sectors.

To achieve this, we’re doing the following:

Developing a strong partnership between education and business to support bridging the skills gap
Equipping students with the skills that businesses need
Providing careers opportunities for local, skilled and talented individuals

Our integrated approach stimulates the demand for skills provision for school, college and university leavers, enabling interested parties to meet the needs of our local industry by providing the right number of places in the right skills areas and at the appropriate level.

The Gloucestershire Skills Statement, published in March 2017, outlines our vision and aims for bridging the skills gap and stimulating growth as a result.

Facts and Figures

630

jobs created from the A40 project

7,500

jobs created from the Cyber Business Park project

150

secured for the Forest of Dean

Employment and Skills Board

GFirst LEP, Gloucestershire County Council and the six other Gloucestershire local authorities established an Employment and Skills Board (ESB) in the summer of 2017. The Board provides a link between the workforce and training needs of local employers, with the provision of local education, training and skills providers in the county to ensure there are strong matches between them.

The Terms of Reference can be found here

The first meeting of the Board took place in October 2017.

Past agendas and minutes can be found here

The Board will meet every quarter. The scheduled dates of the meetings are:

10^th October 2018

Current Board members are:

Vice-chair and banking and finance sector representative: Andrew Kirk – Lloyds Bank
Further education representative: Matthew Burgess – Gloucestershire College
Further education representative: Sara-Jane Watkins – South Gloucestershire and Stroud College
Higher education representative and GFirst LEP Board Member: Russell Marchant – Hartpury College
Secondary schools representative: Anne Stokes – Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Heads
Construction sector representative: Michael Carter – E.G.Carter & Co Ltd
Health and social care employer representative: tbc
Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) representative: Diane Haines – DWP/Jobcentre Plus
Voluntary sector employer representative: Jason Dunsford – Gloucestershire Gateway Trust
Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Training Partnership representative: tbc– Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Partnership
Public sector employer representative (County Council): Lynden Stowe – Gloucestershire County Council
Public sector employer representative (District Councils): Cllr Steve Lydon – Stroud District Council
Private training provider representative: Linsey Temple – Gloucestershire Engineering Training
Private sector representative: Rebekka Bishop–Northrop Grumman and Gloucestershire STEM network chair

An evidence base has been produced to aid discussion and decision-making. The document can here found here.

In December 2017, the Government published its Careers Strategy and a summary can be found here and the full strategy here.

The Gloucestershire Employment and Skills Board, GFirst LEP and Gloucestershire County Council warmly welcome the strategy and will be working closely over the coming months with other local stakeholders to implement the strategy and build on the existing local arrangements in the county.

The Board is advised by Pete Carr (GFirst LEP and Gloucestershire County Council) and Kathryn Wagstaff (Strategic Alliance ).

If you are interested in getting involved in the work of the Employment and Skills Board, please don’t hesitate to contact Pete Carr or Kathryn Wagstaff.