Skills for Business

Our strategies and action plans for local skills

We are continually updating and evolving of approaches to dealing with the employment and skills needs in Gloucestershire as well as updating the information that informs this work.

2020-21 has been a time like no other as far as employment and skills is concerned so we have focused our work on the skills-related activities to support local economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. This doesn’t mean that the longer-term skills needs of the County have been forgotten, as the majority of the workstreams involved also support the longer-term growth ambitions of Gloucestershire and align closely with the draft Gloucestershire Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) https://www.gfirstlep.com/industrial-strategy/ published in 2019.

Gloucestershire Employment and Skills Evidence Base

Our Employment and Skills evidence base has been reviewed and substantially updated in March 2021 to include some of the impacts of the Covid pandemic. This evidence base explains more about Gloucestershire’s demographics, employment and unemployment trends, business sectors and employers. Organisations bidding for employment and skills or other contracts in the County may find this useful to refer to in their bids.

Please click below to download the Employment and Skills Evidence Base, March 2021.

LMSR Section 1 Labour Market Background

LMSR Section 2 Employment

LMSR Section 3 Future Skills

GFirst Local Skills Report Annex A March 2021

Gloucestershire Skills Strategy

Our Skills Strategy is being developed, consulted on, and finalised in Autumn/Winter 2021 and will be available here. To see the intended approach and timeline please click below. 

Outline of Skills Strategy

Skills Strategy Timeline

In the meantime, the draft Gloucestershire Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) https://www.gfirstlep.com/industrial-strategy/ published in 2019 explains some of the key skills developments for the County, including expansion of provision and employment in several key sectors that are critical to Gloucestershire’s future:

• Agri-tech
• Construction
• Cyber and digital
• Green/renewables/retrofit
• Health and social care

We are particularly keen to ensure that we work with local employers, local and national careers, employability and skills providers to ensure that provision aligns with the current and future skills and employment needs of local employers. We will be seeking to align any funding bids or other skills developments in the County to support this work and to work with us in a co-ordinated and collaborative way for the benefit of Gloucestershire residents and businesses.

Gloucestershire local skills priorities for economic recovery

This Powerpoint presentation explains the needs we are trying to meet and the rationale for our skills response to aid local economic recovery. It should be read in conjunction with the Employment and Skills Action Plan below.

Please click here to download Gloucestershire's local skills priorities for economic recovery.

Employment and Skills Action Plan

This has been developed to tackle the immediate employment and skills priorities presented by the Covid pandemic and by EU exit, whilst also progressing some of the longer-term employment and skills ambitions of Gloucestershire.

The Action Plan is updated monthly and the current version is available here. 

How GFirst LEP works in the ‘skills space’

GFirst LEP works on employment and skills by providing a combination of:

• Strategic direction – via key strategies such as the Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), the ESIF Strategy, the Local Industrial Strategy, our Economic recovery response, the Skills Strategy, and the Local Skills Report
• The voices of local businesses -  via the LEP Board, Gloucestershire Skills Advisory Panel (GSAP), LEP business groups, the Growth Hub, surveys with local businesses, etc. into local and national consultations and decisions on employment and skills issues
• Influence– via the LEP Board, Gloucestershire Skills Advisory Panel (GSAP), business groups, campaigns with employers, lobbying
• Funding – Skills capital projects; European Social Fund (ESF) funding; UK Shared Prosperity Funding (when agreed by Government)
• Enable, co-ordinate and facilitate – through partnership working, sharing of resources, resolving blockages, disseminating information
• Deliver – Where we are best placed to do so e.g. the GFirst Careers Hub

Skills Advisory Panels: the national context

Skills Advisory Panels (SAPs) bring together employers, skills providers and key local stakeholders to better understand and resolve skills mismatches at a local level. There are 36 SAPs across England as part of Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships.

The Department for Education (DfE) supports SAPs with grant funding primarily to produce high quality analysis of local labour markets and Local Skills Reports. The Reports set out the local strengths and skills needs and how the SAP proposes its area addresses its key priorities. The Reports aim to influence local partners and feed intelligence to central government, including the national-level Skills and Productivity Board (SPB).

In January 2021, DfE published its White Paper “Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth,” which set out a number of reforms aimed at putting employers more firmly at the heart of the skills system. The White Paper outlined plans to test in 2021-22, in a small number of areas, “Local Skills Improvement Plans” created by business representative organisations.

The White Paper committed to build on the work of SAPs to date. SAPs and their Local Skills Reports will continue as the DfE trailblazes “Local Skill Improvement Plans” and until any potential changes are made to a SAP’s remit and responsibilities.

The work of Gloucestershire Skills Advisory Panel

The Gloucestershire Skills Advisory Panel (GSAP) provides a link between local economic development needs and strategic planning, with the mandate to address issues around skills and unemployment/worklessness in the County. It is an advisory body with no legal status but with a specific role as part of GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership and the local authority structure within Gloucestershire.

The aim of the Panel is to boost economic growth by creating a more appropriate, relevant and highly skilled local workforce, and its role is to shape and influence employment and skills training and support to meet the skills needs of employers in Gloucestershire.

This is done by engaging private and public sector employers, colleges, training providers and the voluntary and community sector in the development and delivery of an integrated employment and skills strategy and associated action plan.

The Panel:

• Has developed an Employment and Skills Evidence Base to inform about the employment and skills needs, demand and supply in the County Add link to Employment and Skills Evidence Base
• Is developing and implementing a Skills Strategy for Gloucestershire. Initially this was done as part of the Gloucestershire Local Industrial Strategy published in 2019 https://www.gfirstlep.com/industrial-strategy/ and now involves creation and implementation of a skills strategy that incorporates both the skills workstreams supporting local economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and those meeting the longer-term skills needs and sector growth ambitions of the County. These are brought together into an Action plan for Employment and Skills in Gloucestershire.
• Has provided GFirst LEP and other appropriate bodies/groups such as the Gloucestershire European Structural and Investment Funding Committee (ESIF) with recommendations on both revenue and capital skills funding priorities and skills projects within Gloucestershire.
• Has optimised the impact of employment and skills investment for local communities, employers and individuals
• Used experience and knowledge of Panel Members and others associated with the Panel to seek to shape strategy and policy on employment, learning and skills development
• Influenced the prioritisation, planning and investment in employment and skills supply and the shape of delivery

Gloucestershire Local Skills Report

This has been prepared by GSAP to explain more about the work it has been doing, the influence it is having and the skills challenges and successes in Gloucestershire. The Local Skills Report was prepared in March 2021. This report will be updated and published here in November 2021.

The Gloucestershire Skills Advisory Panel (GSAP) reports to the GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board and to the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Joint Committee (GEGJC) and has a specific role to develop and inform LEP and local authority strategic plans with particular reference to employment, skills and training needs.

The GSAP has made recommendations to the GFirst LEP Board, to Gloucestershire County Council, to the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Joint Committee (GEGJC), and to the Gloucestershire European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Committee to enable employment and skills capital and revenue funding to be bid for and allocated in Gloucestershire, based on and targeted to deal with local priorities. It also works closely with the education, skills and training providers to ensure they are fully aware of and work towards achieving local employment and skills priorities.