Bringing business and education together

Efforts in Coventry and Warwickshire to bring business and education together to help deliver the skills the economy needs – now and in the future – have been praised in the House of Lords.

The West Midlands and Warwickshire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) was produced by the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and Black Country Chamber of Commerce.

The plan, which sets out three key priorities, was devised after around six months of research and consultation including engaging with more than 1,000 employers as well as skills and training organisations such as FE and HE institutions and other private providers.

It has identified where there are shortfalls in provision and, also, a lack of knowledge of what is available both by individuals and employers, and makes recommendations on how they can be addressed.

Funding for the plan was announced in the autumn, with Coventry and Warwickshire awarded £10.4 million to deliver its plan through a partnership between business and HE.

Baroness Martha Lane Fox, the president of the British Chambers of Commerce, praised the work that is happening in Coventry and Warwickshire to address the issue during a debate in the House of Lords on the importance of skills for success in the UK economy.

“In Coventry and Warwickshire, the Chamber has been working with more than 3,500 different employers and 74 per cent of them say that they have never sat down with any Higher Education providers in the last five years,” she said.

“This unlock has been fundamental in helping businesses and the providers decide what both sides need in the next two to three years. It is interesting to me that there seems to have been an extreme drop-off post-Covid on how much collaboration happens across these areas of the economy, and the sectors that are serving the skills part of the economy.

“These Local Skills Improvement Plans are a really tangible way to encourage this collaboration to happen. When the providers have mapped out their needs, they will then come up with a plan both on the business and on the education side at any level to do what is needed to plug those gaps.”

Corin Crane, chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are delighted that Baroness Martha Lane Fox raised the work that we are doing in this region on the Local Skills Improvement Plans.

“There is a real appetite to work towards a solution to an issue that has dogged businesses and the whole economy for many years.

“It’s only through collaboration and flexing to what employers and the economy needs that we will truly be able to provide the skills needed both now and in the future.”