Spotlight on Local Skills

The UK’s skills gap is holding the country back. Whilst there have been multiple policy efforts to boost workforce skills, the UK remains on the backfoot when it comes to productivity and the uneven distribution of opportunity across the country. Moreover, with the exponential rise of digital technologies, we urgently need a skills pipeline that can keep pace with automation.

In this paper, we call on government to empower combined authorities to deliver successful skills policies. Different localities have different skills needs, changes and gaps, which each require a bespoke approach. Our research reiterates that local leaders are best placed to understand local labour market conditions, and to work with local employers and education providers to support the development of future skills.

To see the findings and recommendations from this research read the full report.

Key findings & recommendations

Key findings

• Data insights can help anticipate the shifting demand and supply of skills in different regions.
• Devolving skills policy to a local level is necessary to drive better skills policies within a national framework.
• The public want to upskill themselves, but a significant proportion have never completed any kind of skills training.
• There is clear appetite from the public, employers, and providers for a modular approach to learning. This can help contribute to the development of a culture of lifelong learning.

Recommendations

• Further devolve skills and employment funding to combined authorities.
• Use data to plan for the future.
• Embrace modular learning.
• Bring together universities, colleges and independent training providers.
• Incentivise employers to take the lead.

For more on these and other recommendations see the full report.