Skills: Education Trust looks to close skills gaps in Stoke and Staffordshire

ALL week TheBusinessDesk.com will be highlighting news relating to the all-important skills issue. 

A new skills initiative has been launched in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire to ensure employers have sustained access to an educated and skilled workforce.

The Education Trust will look at closing skills gaps, creating clear pathways to work and in a concerted approach, ensuring skills needs are addressed from primary age upwards.

The trust is a joint initiative between Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Keele University, businesses via the Local Enterprise Partnership, local education and training providers and the voluntary sector. Its developing work programme forms part of the City Deal proposals.

It has been developed in response to a recognised gap in skills, behaviours, attitudes and qualifications, which has led to some employers recruiting staff from further afield and overseas.

The Education Trust will work with schools, Further Education colleges, universities, other training and apprenticeship providers as well as employers to develop a continuous career and work offer for young people from primary school right through to when they start their first job.

It is developing a Skills Plan to identify new industries moving into the region as well as those that are already expanding.  At the same time it will undertake four locality projects, which will identify industry hubs and clusters of businesses in Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle under Lyme, Cannock and Tamworth. The trust will then work with these businesses to identify existing skills gaps and where gaps are likely to arise in the future.

It will also work with schools, colleges, other training providers, businesses and the region’s two universities to map the routes to qualifications and on to work.

The intention is to develop defined pathways for education providers and young people. The academic community will also be able to use the information to develop new services and events, modernise work experience and offer new ways to expose young people to the world of work.

Ken Stepney, chair of the Education Trust and ambassador for JCB said: “We know that education providers at all levels work hard to prepare young people for life beyond education, but currently plan their courses on an annual basis to meet immediate needs and funding criteria. At the same time, employers know what skills gaps they have now, but can’t always identify where gaps will arise in the future because of changes in educational funding and policy.

“The Education Trust is undertaking ground breaking work to bring business, education providers and councils together to ensure that both the existing and future workforce has the education and skills needed to supply future business needs. Comprehensively, mapping pathways to work from primary right through to higher education courses or vocational training is something that has never been done before, and will allow education providers to respond to the real skills gaps of local businesses.”

Cllr Ben Adams, cabinet member for learning and skills on Staffordshire County Council said: “Economic growth requires a workforce equipped with the right skills, aspirations and qualifications to drive business forward, not least in cutting edge industries. The Education Trust will match training provision with local business needs ensuring that there is a pool of talented people who are correctly skilled and ready to work right here in Staffordshire.”