The Story Unfolds
Nottingham as a Core City
Developing Skills
Led by: Greater Nottingham Skills Board
The problem:
Nottingham has a large number of residents with low skills and no qualifications, particularly in the inner city and outer estates. Many traditional low skill jobs have been replaced by other low skill jobs in retail and hospitality. Easy access to these jobs means many people are not motivated to train, and city employers recruit extensively outside the city. However there is an increasing need for skilled administrative and technician grade jobs, the lack of which is seriously inhibiting the growth of higher value added jobs and economic growth. To ensure more jobs for graduates, and increased local prosperity, we have to ensure that we can match the supply of skills to the demands of employers.
The answer:
Following the publication of the Greater Nottingham Development Strategy: Drawing Together, a Greater Nottingham Skills Board has been set up to tackle adult learning, skills and employability. Its task is to raise the aspirations of local people, drive up the demands for skills from business and improve the match between skills supply and demand. Key areas such as retail distribution, health and social care, construction engineering and manufacturing will be supported. Priority groups will include 14 to 19 year-olds, lone parents, people with disabilities, those with low / no qualifications, black and ethnic minority groups, older people and those living in our most deprived wards.
| Action | Who leads? | Timescales |
|---|---|---|
| Work with employers to shape provision for young people (14 - 19 years) to better meet labour market demands, including apprenticeships and more vocational training | LSC, City and County LEA's | ongoing |
| Working with employers to connect local people to local jobs through Nottingham's 'Making the Connection' model | City Council with Skills Board partners | Launch Autumn 2005 |
| Helping to drive up the demand for skills through a Nottingham Employer Training Pilot (focusing on skills for life and level 2) | GNP / LSC | June 2005 - June 2007 |
| Support the development of a Testbed Learning Community on the Broxtowe Estate | BEST / GNLP | Now to March 2006 |
| Support the development of a Centre of Vocational Excellence for Retail in Nottingham | LSC | January 2006 |
| Review current mainstream and discretionary funding regimes - better match provision to meet local skills demands | LSC | ongoing |
| Increase the number of local people from disadvantaged groups recruited into local authorities and other public sector employers | City and County Councils | ongoing |
| Support activity targeted at reducing the levels of people claiming Incapacity Benefit and Lone Parents (IS) out of work | Jobcentre Plus | ongoing |