Mid and East Antrim Labour Market Partnership
2022/23 Action Plan
Findings from the consultation process and feedback from Employers In developing its LMP Action Plan for 2022/23, MEA has been keen to ensure extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders able to offer useful opinion and perspective on the employability, skills and labour market priorities and needs in the MEA area. In the course of developing the 2022/23 Action Plan, the original consultation plan to engage at least 15 key stakeholders was expanded to include over 18 stakeholder groups and in excess of 50 senior business and community leaders to ensure the LMP Action Planning process secured input from a broad range of perspectives from relevant parties with an interest in the labour market and employability issues in the MEA region. Figure 4 below summarises the stakeholder groups involved.
Figure 4: LMP stakeholder consultation groups
Feedback from Employers Effective engagement with MEA’s manufacturing sector was achieved through consultation with the MEA Manufacturing Task Force (MTF) Skills Sub-Group, along with direct engagement with a number of manufacturing businesses based in MEA. From these discussions it was clear there are a high level of unfilled vacancies in the manufacturing sector, with skills gaps and recruitment issues at all levels across the sector. In a round-table poll conducted by the MTF skills subgroup in December 2021, 75% of attendees considered attracting skills and talent to be a top priority for business recovery in 2022, with several businesses identifying the need for improved female representation in the sector. Manufacturers also referenced ongoing challenges in supply chain and logistics sector, and whilst some of the larger road haulage companies have a level of increased success from their ability to offer internal training and development, many of the Small and Medium (SME) Business operators in the region continue to experience difficulty in sourcing qualified drivers, forklift operators and senior supply chain roles. A similar high level of demand for people and skills exists in MEA’s Health and Social Care sector, and it was noted at the time of researching this report that over 53% of
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