Chair’s Report

Mike Forrester: Chair’s Report

Further to the Government’s Skills for Jobs White Paper (January 2021), Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIPs) were created to put employers more firmly at the heart of the skills system to help ensure businesses and people have the skills they need to thrive and grow, alongside improving local productivity and international competitiveness. I am passionate about helping people and businesses reach their maximum potential, so this is fabulous news.

Led by designated Employer Representative Bodies (ERBs), LSIPs will clearly articulate local employers’ skills needs, and the priority changes required in the local area to help ensure post-16 technical education and training provision is more responsive and flexible in meeting local labour market needs.

In September 2022, Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce was appointed as the designated ERB for Worcestershire and will also support Shropshire Chamber of Commerce as the designated ERB for the Marches (Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford), with delivery in Herefordshire. The Chamber are well placed to successfully deliver the plan having very close links with both education providers and businesses in the two counties. The project manager is Lauren Ashford, who has recent experience in the skills sector, supported by Steve Collins. We look forward to sharing the outcomes of the plan as it rolls out and several of you will be contacted by the team to participate. Once more we were able to celebrate our autumn Expo with record numbers of exhibitors and visitors at the Three Counties Showground. There was a real ‘buzz’ in the room, and we hope that the event will continue to grow and provide a wonderful showcase for the exhibitors.

Just a reminder that surveys - including the Quarterly Economic Survey, which is completed by about 25% of Members (could be more!) - is a very good representation of economic conditions in our area. The survey is fed to the British Chambers of Commerce and on to Government.

Cyber Crime is a serious topic and we must all ensure we are as protected for malicious hacking as we can. It’s key that our staff at all levels are aware of the risk and that their awareness of suspicious emails and phone calls is heightened. I raise this as I attended the latest Business Leaders dinner, hosted by Julian Vaughan and the team at the Green Dragon Hotel in Hereford. The speaker was Geoff White, a Cyber Crime Investigative reporter. His book or podcast: The Lazarus Heist, is well worth taking in. He related several cases where he had investigated past cybercrimes where hackers and cyber criminals often collaborate with organised crime. In most cases the cyber criminals gained network and system access because an employee opened what should have been considered a suspicious email. There are several providers of Cyber Risk Awareness training within the membership and the Chamber is working with the British Chambers of Commerce to promote awareness of Cyber Essentials accreditation with one of our Members IASME and their programme: Introducing the Cyber Essentials Readiness Tool - Iasme.

Finally, I wish you and your families a great new year, Mike.