Regional Skills Partnerships Newsletter - Issue 12

Issue date

07 Nov 2006

Issue 12 October 2006

Alan Johnson Announces the first Three National Skills Academies
Progress on the 14-19 Reform Agenda
Are you ready to meet the Train to Gain challenge?
London 2012
Adult Learners' Week: The UK's largest festival of learning
News from the Sectors
Regionally Speaking
London Region Tackling Worklessness
Higher Education in the South East Region
South East: Action for Business Networks - Highbury College Meeting Business Needs
South West Focus on Employability
RSP Managers

Alan Johnson Announces the first Three National Skills Academies

On 31^st October, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson announced the launch of the first three National Skills Academies. To mark the launch, Alan Johnson and Skills Minister Phil Hope hosted a business breakfast to congratulate the founders and to encourage other sectors to follow suit.

The launch marks the start of an employer-led, world-class National Skills Academy network to provide vocational education and training for school leavers and adults, tailor made to meet the specific needs of industry sectors and those who work in them. The aim is to have up to 12 academies operational by 2008 and the Government is investing £90 million in the programme which will be delivered through the Learning and Skills Council working with employers and their Sector Skills Councils.

The first three academies to be approved and shortly become operational are in the Financial Services, Construction, and Manufacturing sectors. A fourth, representing the Food and Drink sector, is close to being approved.

Bids from the nuclear industry; the chemical industry; the hospitality sector; and the creative and cultural industries have been accepted by the Government and will now be invited to work up business plans ready for the next stage of the process.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the start of the National Skills Academy programme marked a turning point in skills training that would ensure British industry remained competitive in the long term and able to respond rapidly to changing needs and demands.

Alan Johnson said: 'Raising skills is essential to wealth creation and creating a society of opportunity for all. The National Skills Academy programme will improve our capacity for learning by driving up standards and specialisation with the learning sector. This will be good for individuals and employers alike and give all parties a real chance to address the skills gap and close it.'

Progress on the 14-19 Reform Agenda

14-19 Regional Conferences

A series of 14-19 Regional Conferences took place in October in the nine Government Office regions and focused on supporting providers locally to implement the 14-19 reform programme. At the conferences local providers were given the opportunity to share information about the reforms and discuss the implications for their area. The conferences also helped to explore issues critical to success locally. In particular they helped to address some concerns about the Gateway process.

The Government Office Director for Children and Learners as well as the LSC Regional Director for each region placed the reforms within a local context. DfES, QCA, and the Diploma Development Partnerships provided information on the overall 14-19 reform programme, Diploma Gateway, curriculum reforms, and the vision for the Diplomas respectively. Delegates, who included, Local Authority 14-19 coordinators, LSCs, Headteachers, and Further Education 14-19 coordinators also took part in seminar discussions which focused on the detail of the first five Diploma lines: Construction and the Built Environment; Society, Health and Development; IT; Engineering; and Creative and Media. In the afternoon the delegates were given the opportunity to discuss three key issues: local delivery; the workforce; and employer engagement.

The conferences generated a number of issues that will need to be addressed at both a local and national level, and work will continue over the forthcoming months to resolve these. A series of Guidance notes addressing three main concerns from the programme covering: transport, capital and SEN, will be available within the next few months.

Feedback suggests that the conferences have proved to be a valuable experience for both local providers and partners.

Diplomas

Hot on the heels of the content for the first five Diplomas is the publication of the subject criteria. These set out the shape and scope of the 2008 Diplomas and will be used by awarding bodies to develop the actual qualifications. The criteria appears on the QCA website at: http://www.qca.org.uk/17406.html

Diploma Gateway Guidance

The Diploma Gateway Guidance was published on 2 October 2006. The Guidance provides information for organisations wishing to offer one or more of the first five Diploma lines in September 2008. Copies of the Guidance can be obtained from Prolog, telephone 0845 60 222 60 and quote ref: 03903-206DOM-EN or downloaded from:

http://www.dfes.gov.uk.14-19/documents/GatewayGuidance06.pdf

Functional Skills Trials

September 2006 saw a small-scale trial of the draft functional skills and the approaches to their assessment. The recent regional conferences also provided a valuable opportunity to explain how functional skills will work in the context of the Diplomas.

For more information on the 14-19 progress please contact sarah.kaya@dfes.gsi.gov.uk

Are you ready to meet the Train to Gain challenge?

You may have expertise to share or you might want to work with colleagues to improve your existing provision - whatever your starting point the Development Programme has something to offer you.

Train to Gain offers exciting new opportunities for training providers to deliver learning to businesses. It also means developing a more flexible and responsive approach to meet the ever-changing needs of employers.

The Development Programme for Train to Gain, funded by the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA), will provide opportunities to develop provider capacity for Train to Gain delivery. The Programme is being delivered by the Learning and Skills Network (LSN), in partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (Ashridge), Sales Insight and BDP Learning.

To find out more about the upcoming Development Programme events:

Email traintogaindevelopment@LSNeducation.org.uk call 020 7297 9009 or visit the website www.traintogaindevelopment.org.uk

Free Development Programme events in Nov/Dec 2006

Gaining and retaining employers as customers - a sales introductory session

These events will help you understand what selling really is and combat the poor image you might have of sales. You will also understand what selling means in the context of Train to Gain and your other employer work. These events will happen regionally in November.

Developing responsive people and organisations workshops for strategic development

These workshops will provide insight into what leadership and management skills and strategies your organisation needs to become more employer responsive. These workshops will start in November.

Developing responsive people and organisations workshops for operational development

These workshops will provide insight into what leadership and management skills and strategies your organisation needs to become more employer responsive. These workshops will start in November.

Developing flexible delivery workshops

The workshops are designed to suit providers with different levels of expertise and experience in work-based learning, and will relate to different roles working within your organisation. They will also focus on regional and sectoral Train to Gain priorities. These workshops will start in November.

Developing flexible delivery peer referencing groups

The Development Programme for Train to Gain encourages you to find ways to implement flexible delivery by talking to people in similar roles in other organisations. Get involved in a peer referencing group to look at specific aspects of workplace provision. These workshops will start in November

London 2012

London 2012 Logo

The London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games are an excellent opportunity to drive forward the national employment and skills agenda, expanding opportunities to take up employment and contributing to the wider upskilling of the national workforce.
We can use the Games to drive forward the broader employment and skills agenda, bring about systemic change, and ensure a nationwide legacy that is felt long term outside London - using the Games as a catalyst for additional but sustainable activity and better partnership working across the UK.
Regions can drive this forward by seizing opportunities as they arise. In the weeks and months leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, athletes from around the world will be preparing and training for competition. Some will choose to do this in their home countries - others will use facilities known as Pre-Games Training Camps in and around the UK. They'll be looking for an exclusive training environment with world-class training facilities, comfortable but affordable accommodation, and such things as food appropriate for training athletes, available at times to suit training schedules.
Are sports facilities in your region considering putting themselves forward? Are they reluctant because they feel there would be language barriers? Or they don't have sufficient numbers of trained staff? Or that local amenities will let them down, because of these reasons? Now's the time to address these issues, to get ahead of the game and make the Games a success for the whole of the country.
Hosting the Games will be a great opportunity for us all to show the world that we have the skills and organisation to deliver a top-quality major event. People and their skills are key to the success of the Games - not just to design and build new structures, but to provide the hospitality, coach the athletes, encourage local participation and, above all, ensure that the Games drives forward the skills agenda and leave a lasting legacy throughout the country.
Skills for Business Network Launches Management and Leadership Programme

The programme is being launched under the leadership of SkillsActive on behalf of the whole network; it builds on previous work by the network's Management and Leadership and Business Skills Boards but adds new features.

It's focused on getting the long-term strategy right. The programme will use the aggregate output of our Sector Skills Agreements to ensure our work in rooted firmly in the skills needs of our employers. It will take on board the work of the Leadership and Management Advisory Panel and their submission to the Leitch Review.

The first part of the programme is strategic and seeks to change long-term attitudes amongst managers. The second part is tactical and involves discovering and promoting solutions that can help real managers with real problems today. Here's an example of such a programme.

Action Learning for Leaders - a practical programme available now

At the heart of the process is the 'action learning set'. This is where a group of six to nine managers meet at regular intervals for each member to explore a real, challenging open-ended problem. Every member in turn works on their task and the others provide support and challenge. The aim is to help each manager both to tackle the task and to learn from the process.

Positive results from pilot programmes

Significant business benefits were reported during the pilot programme, including:

Cost savings of £2,000 per month for one business
A business and action plan based on a 25% increase in turnover for another
Two companies that have been 'saved' from potential failure - one due to the leader's lack of motivation and the other due to the leader's imminent retirement.

Individual participants have described personal improvements in many areas, including a better work-life balance, improved time management, greater confidence to change the company, improved delegation, increased personal motivation and instigating new initiatives to improve staff motivation.

For more information about the programme, click here . To view the Management and Leadership model, click here .

Adult Learners' Week: The UK's largest festival of learning

Entry is now open to the 2007 Adult Learners' Week Awards and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is encouraging anyone who works in the broad field of adult education to nominate their outstanding adult learners for the awards.

Adult Learners' Week, the UK's largest festival of learning runs from 19-25 May 2007. As part of Adult Learners' Week, individuals, families, groups and projects and their inspirational stories are used to motivate others to explore the benefits of adult learning.

If you know a learner, or an employee, that you'd like to nominate or if you would like to nominate your learning project for the awards all you have to do is request or download a nomination form using the information below.

Telephone: 0116 2044 200

Website: www.alw.org.uk

The closing date for the awards is noon on the 19 January 2007.

News from the Sectors

e-skills UK Celebrates Milestones in Impact on Skills

e-skills UK has released details of achievements it has made since its Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) was launched a year ago.

The employer-led Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms has published "Real People, Real Successes", an update on progress it has made in delivering the three year SSA action plan. This includes:

Transforming the attitude of a generation of girls to IT, with 50,000 girls in over 1,500 schools already involved with Computer Clubs for Girls (CC4G)
Providing an inspiring, technology-related education for young people aged 14 to 19, working with employers and educators to develop the innovative IT Diploma, available from 2008
Preparing undergraduates with the technology and business skills employers need - the Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) degree framework is now in its second year at UK universities, with twelve universities committed by October 2007
Establishing a world leading IT profession - e-skills UK is developing a common language for IT professional skills and making sense of skills provision for employers, as part of the new Professionalism in IT alliance
Helping small companies to make the most of IT - the online Business IT Guide helps managers of smaller firms to understand how technology could benefit their business and take action
Improving return on investment in IT user skills - over 15,000 employees in more than 800 companies are already using the e-skills Passport to assess and address IT user skills needs
Employer support - over 10,000 businesses have been involved with the work of e-skills UK, an increase from 400 three years ago
Over 2,000 people visit www.e-skills.com every day
Around 6,000 people have subscribed to the e-skills UK's business newsletter

Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK commented: "e-skills UK brings employers together with government, education and others to address the skills challenges that none of us can fix on our own. In July 2005, we published the Sector Skills Agreement for IT and Telecoms, an employer-led strategic agenda for change. Today's report highlights the considerable progress made in delivering on our vision. We are proud to be making a very real contribution to businesses and to people's lives.

"The journey has only just begun. With the rise of the global economy, offshoring, outsourcing, re-skilling and the ever accelerating pace of technological change, this is an exciting and critical time for technology skills development."

The e-skills UK Sector Skills Agreement for IT and Telecoms represents a ten year vision supported by a three year action plan. The SSA aims to ensure that the UK has a world-class IT and Telecoms professional skills pool; that all organisations in every sector are able to fully realise the potential of IT to support their business goals; and that all individuals have - and continue to develop - the IT user skills to fully participate in the e-economy.

To view the "Real People, Real Successes" publication, visit www.e-skills.com/ssa. For your complimentary hard copy, go to www.e-skills.com/register.

Regionally Speaking

East of England sponsors National Training Awards

In the East of England, the East of England Skills and Competitiveness Partnership (EESCP) has recently sponsored the National Training Awards along with City and Guilds. This year they celebrated 20 years of the awards and this special evening saw the region show casing excellence in training and people development with 14 finalists being recognised.

The National Training Awards are the UK's number one accolade for businesses, organisations and individuals who have achieved lasting excellence and success through training and learning. Effective training enables individuals to achieve their potential, organisations to achieve their aims and objectives, and the UK workforce to compete in global markets. The aim is to recognise and celebrate the people and the organisations who create success through training and personal development. The National Training Awards are universally recognised as being the number one in their field and this year saw a strong group of applications and the judges had a difficult time in coming to their final decisions.

Our winners demonstrated achievements across a vast spectrum of activity, based in the workplace and in the community. The quality common to all winners of a National Training Award is that they demonstrate significant benefits from exceptionally effective learning and skills development. Winners show, not only good people development, but also the outstanding results gained by putting what has been learned into practice. In the East of England we had 14 finalists from the public and private sector and of those 5 gained a national award and have been invited to a further event in December to collect their award.

Those gaining a national award in the East of England were:

Flexible Lamps Ltd - An Essex based business that had been successfully making vehicle lighting for over 80 years had to change the way it worked to remain cost -effective. Flexible lamps Ltd (FL), of Barrows Road, Harlow, which also has sites in Suffolk and France, moved away from the traditional production line to multi skilled teams. The change, which has brought benefits to the company, was achieved through a training programme that has involved the entire workforce since 1999.
GMB Union and Trade Union Learning link - Many hundreds of people with loc basic skills have been attracted back into learning in East Anglia, thanks to a trade union partnership. The partners - the GMB Trade Union of Norwich and Trade Union Learning Link (TULL) of Fakenham, Norfolk - collaborated on a structured learning initiative in Norfolk and Suffolk targeting non traditional learners in low-paid low skilled work in unusual ways. The union initiative surpassed all the goals set for it. It targeted 1,000 learners but since April 2004, 1,486, many of them with previous negative education experiences, have attended accredited coursed or taster sessions.
Hertfordshire Constabulary PSI Course - Police officers are planning terrorist attacks - as part of a unique training programme for probationary constables which was launched in 2004 - 402 officers have gone through the training which includes an unsupervised 24 hour exercise to 'think like terrorists'. They research a plan of attack on a specified target, and discuss ways of countering this and meeting the Government CONTEST strategy to detect, disrupt or deter terrorists.
Ravin Jayasuriya - A Hertfordshire man who began playing the drums at the age of seven, has dedicated his life to music and overcame a hand injury to carve out a career as a percussionist. As an educator he established his own business, One Voice Music in 1996, providing training in Cuban and Brazillian percussion and dance. He has taught over 3000 students in his own percussion workshops and modular courses in the UK and abroad since 2001.

Thomas Cook Emergency Procedures - Thomas Cook Signature, a specialist brand of Thomas Cook has increased its team which responds to terrorism and disasters from 14 to 88 since 9/11 and the Bali bombings. The teams training includes workshops run in partnership with The Centre for Crisis Psychology, which specialises in trauma counselling and they look at each incident as an opportunity to develop and increase their ability to respond to customers in the most appropriate way at a time of great distress and anxiety.

Once again this shows the commitment within the business community in the East of England to training and development and they are a true inspiration to others.

London Region Tackling Worklessness

Major initiatives aimed at helping to reduce worklessness in London were endorsed by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, at a reception in Downing Street on 17 October.

The event was used to launch the London Employment and Skills Taskforce for 2012 (LEST) Action Plan and two of its proposals, the Pre-Volunteer Programme and the London Employer Accord.

Lannch of the London Employment and Skills Taskforce action plan

The Taskforce was Chaired by London Development Agency (LDA) Board member Jeremy Long and included key public, private and voluntary sector representatives.

The Pre-Volunteer Programme will use the hook of the Games to engage those who are most disconnected from the labour market and help them to gain a range of skills and experience through volunteering, thereby improving their employment prospects.

Through the London Employer Accord public sector agencies and employers will commit to a range of measures including tailoring employment and training programmes and offering interviews to job ready candidates. The Accord was signed by the Mayor of London, Government Ministers, the LDA , Jobcentre Plus, the Learning & Skills Council, London 2012, the London Business Board and a number of employers. The plan can be downloaded from the LDA website http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.1646

Higher Education in the South East Region

RSPA logo The 2005 Skills White Paper set out new areas of activity for Regional Skills Partnerships, which included improving Higher Education (HE) links. To take this work forward in the South East, the Regional Skills for Productivity Alliance (RSPA) set up a HE Task Group. The Group has started to make some significant strides in this key area.

The Task Group, composed of key partners including the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) and Higher Education South East (HESE), has begun to engage with the Skills for Business Network, Sector Skills Councils and other key bodies and has drawn up a Work Plan of activities including developing effective employer engagement with HE and supporting progression routes into HE.

Graham Grover has been appointed as Higher Skills Development Manager within the South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA). Graham will support the Group's activities. His post is co-funded by strategic partners Foundation Degree Forward, SEEDA and the Government Office for the South East.

For further information, contact Graham on Mobile 07909 603792 or by email grahamgrover@seeda.co.uk .

South East: Action for Business Networks - Highbury College Meeting Business Needs

More colleges in the South East are achieving Action for Business Status; a quality standard that demonstrates a college can provide quality services to meet employers skills needs.

The standard was developed three years ago by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the South East Regional Development Agency (SEEDA), in response to the Governments Skills Strategy White Paper requesting post 16 provision become more responsive to employer needs and demands.

Twenty-one colleges have successfully gone through a robust development programme to achieve accreditation. The process is intensive and requires colleges to review their ways of working by incorporating best practice and becoming more responsive to employers needs. The Action for Business framework sets out how to assess college management systems, strategic planning, delivery and plans for continuous improvement.

Highbury College was the first college in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight area to attain the Action for Business status. The college has been working with employers for over forty years offering a breadth of vocational provision that puts them in the centre of skills and employability training.

Dee John, Executive Director of the Corporate College at Highbury explains how the framework worked for them: 'The Action for Business standard provided a superb framework for the college to align and increase the focus on delivering skills development and training that really matches local employer's needs to operate and compete in a challenging economy. The process provided the college with an invaluable development tool which allowed us to look in depth at all aspects of the employer journey, from the strategic planning of services to businesses to how well we feed delegates on short courses'

As part of the accreditation process, colleges undergo a number of assessments. These include mystery shopping, interviews with employers and interviews to a panel, made up of employers, LSC and SEEDA personnel.

Commenting on the experience of going through an assessment process Dee said: 'The methods used through the accreditation process such as mystery shopping and interviews with employers gave a great deal of credibility to the staff, partners and most importantly the employers'

Action for Business is more than just a quality mark to a college there are huge benefits in attaining accreditation and going through the process. Dee highlights just some of the benefits to the college: 'Going through the process means the college is able to take a more holistic approach in meeting employer's skills needs. We have more informed understanding of the needs of employers and more innovative solutions to removing perceived barriers to training and skills development'

So what does Action for Business mean to an employer and how did Highbury College deal with an employer enquiry? Spinnaker Tower is Portsmouth's newest attraction standing 170 metres into the sky above the historic harbour of Portsmouth. Visitor Services Manager, Nigel Hosier, approached the college regarding training requirements for their new service staff. As the Tower was still under construction at the time, the staff had never met each other, so the training days were to be the first time they all came together.

Nigel Hosier (left) and staff from the Spinnaker Tower with Highbury College?s Business Development Nigel said: 'Highbury College came up with a two day induction training package for us, one day of which was Customer Service training that we were looking for. They customised another days training to satisfy needs in terms of Health & Safety, Food Hygiene and Customer Service. Some of the lecturers visited the tower to research that beforehand. What was great was that this was the first 2 days employment for our staff. So it was a real team building and bonding session and it meant that off site, all our staff were up to speed in a very short space of time.

After the success of that induction training we've been using Highbury College for further training and more specific and in depth training. Highbury has always been very eager and very quick to respond to our needs. We've got a lot out of Highbury in the last 6 months and I'm sure that relationship is going to continue.'

It is anticipated there will be a network of thirty accredited Action for Business training organisations by March 2007.

For further information please contact Action for Business Network Managers Adam Vernon on avernon@tiscali.co.uk or Catherine Hilton Catherine.hilton@lsc.gov.uk

South West Focus on Employability

The South West Regional Skills Partnership (SW RSP) recently held a conference in association with the Skills and Learning Intelligence Module (SLIM), bringing together businesses and training providers in the South West with the purpose of highlighting research into Employability Skills, focussing on the 16-21 age group. Other important factors to emerge were that employers have indicated a widespread lack of confidence in the long term unemployed.

Around 100 people attended the day long event at Dillington House, Illminster. They heard from s peakers from CDELL (Centre for Developing and Evaluating Lifelong Learning) , Asset Skills and QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) who focused on policy in the morning session and, following lunch, practice was discussed by Deloitte, MANCAT and St John's School and Community College.

There was much discussion in the following question and answer sessions, highlighting the importance of, and interest in, such a hot topic. Issues that were raised included:

what employers want
what is meant by generic employability
changes in society and the nature of work
skills and attributes needed to succeed in today's society

The research by CDELL was commissioned by SLIM for the Employability Project earlier this year to look at basic employability skills and how they are viewed in South West England.

Professor Greatbatch of CDELL reported on the interim findings during the conference, and said that, significantly, small and medium sized companies had identified some 30 different personal attributes deemed relevant to 'employability'. However, it was also clear that organisations defined similar skills in different ways.

He said that smaller organisations appeared cynical about 'key skills' as understood by learning providers. Instead they focused on the ability to turn up on time and work hard, honesty, integrity and commitment. The research indicates they feel other skills can be developed through subsequent training.

However it wasn't all bad news for young people, Chris James of the Sector Skills Development Agency demonstrated how employers are increasingly seeking to engage young recruits earlier as there are not enough suitable 'older' applicants. Whereas at one time they might have targeted their recruitment effort at first year Degree students, they are now increasingly seeking to influence those in the 14-19 range, even before they are ready to move into employment. Carl Emery from MANCAT/GQAL (Manchester College of Arts & Technology/Gender Quality Action Learning) went on to explain that employability skills are vital whether you are 6 or 68.

The Employability Review was set up by members of the SW RSP who wanted to focus on ensuring the young people of the region are equipped with the skills and personal attributes needed for a successful working life.

John Routledge of the SW RSP said: 'We want to raise awareness of the issue of employability skills and how important they are for young people. This is a big concern for employers - they need their new recruits to understand, without being told, that there are certain standards which need to be upheld.

'It is just simple things like being reliable and confident, and showing some enthusiasm for the work you are doing.'

For more information on the project, contact Mike Farrington at MFarrington@golleyslater.co.uk