Over the last two months, 91¶¶Òù has held its ​’Phase 2’ roundtables with key stakeholders to help identify priority needs and develop emerging recommendations to reform London’s skills system
Throughout February and March, 91¶¶Òù delivered eight in-person roundtable events as part of our ​‘Phase 2’ of engagement with businesses, training providers, local government and the third sector as part of our ongoing Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP). The roundtable focussed on each of our sectoral priorities (Construction, Hospitality, Health & Social Care, and the Creative sector) and cross-cutting skills priorities (digital, green, and labour market inclusion), as well as having a dedicated session for training providers. These roundtables aimed to build on the feedback received in Phase 1, gain a granular understanding of skills needs, and tease out suggestions for recommendations for the final LSIP report due in May.
Emerging priorities & recommendations
The roundtables also shone yet another light on 91¶¶Òù’s priority sectors’ specific skills needs and some of the big challenges they are facing:
- The construction sector is suffering from shortages in electrical and mechanical engineering.
- The health and social care sectors are seeing huge growth in roles requiring the skills to manage complex needs such as dementia.
- Many of our sectors are grappling with reputational issues and improving the attractiveness of their career pathways to young people. Despite lots of outreach programmes and initiatives, especially targeted at young people, there was a sense that these need to be better coordinated to have a better impact.
Attendees also provided detailed feedback on cross-cutting skills needs and themes:
- While roles requiring green skills are in high demand in construction, especially heat pump and EV charging point installers, sustainability managers are in short supply across the industry.
- Digital skills are also a concern for many businesses, but attendees were clear that the shortages need to be categorised properly to tackle the problem. Entry-level (basic) skills, role-specific skills (e.g. web design) and advanced (e.g. advanced coding) each need targeted solutions. The current approach to Essential Digital Skills was also seen as too impractical.
- Transferable skills – such as communication and negotiation — were also a top priority for employers, but there needs to be a better suite of accredited, funded qualifications for training providers to deliver.
- A dedicated session on increasing labour market inclusion found that the time and cost of travel are big barriers to getting people from disadvantaged backgrounds into training. Meanwhile, despite the introduction of the Baker Clause requiring schools to give access to colleges to their students to inform them about opportunities in technical education and apprenticeships, many colleges are still reporting challenges in this area.
There was also a rich discussion on the recommendations that should go in the LSIP report. For example, is there a need for a London Skills Support Hub, which would include a brokerage function, to help SMEs better navigate the skills system? Can more employer-provider co-design of courses and workforce exchange programmes be kickstarted to help providers keep up to speed with changing industry training needs? And how can digital and transferable skills be better embedded in the curriculum?
91¶¶Òù is very grateful to all businesses, educators and other key stakeholders who attended these events over the last couple of weeks.
Next steps
91¶¶Òù is running two Public Consultation Events on 29th and 30th March in collaboration with the four sub-regional partnerships of London’s boroughs. With the final LSIP report being submitted at the end of May, this is a golden opportunity to feedback on our emerging priorities and recommendations to help shape the future of London’s skills system.
For more information on our LSIP programme of work or to sign up for our events, please contact Edward Richardson, Programme Director for People & Skills.