Embodying Sheffield’s industrial past, Krantech manufacture complex structures for clients in the oil and gas sector among others. When the company was looking to recruit more young people Paul Wright, one of the directors, took advantage of Skills Made Easy, a Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) initiative. Together they examined the needs of the organisation and designed an apprenticeship training framework that worked for Krantech. Skills Made Easy brokered training with providers on behalf of the company and helped find the right candidates too.
Funded through the City Deal, Skills Made Easy helps small and medium sized companies access high-quality training when and where they need it. The programme was designed by the Sheffield City Region LEP, and it relies on robust labour market intelligence (LMI).
The Sheffield City Region LEP produces annual labour market analysis using UKCES data on employment by sector and occupation, qualifications, employer recruitment difficulties and skill use. Using the LMI, they set out city level skills shortages along with projections by sector, occupation and skills set. This analysis then informs the development of programmes such as Skills Made Easy.
Building the local story is fundamental. It is easy to get lost in the national narrative of improving employment and economic growth. But understanding what is happening in a city or region will enable local partners, be they employers, colleges or local authorities, to work together to meet the needs of their economy and prosper. Today UKCES are taking a step to help organisations such as the Sheffield City Region LEP do precisely that, more efficiently.
UKCES is renowned for the high-quality and robust LMI it produces, covering both current and future supply and demand for skills. Our data from national surveys of employers is unique in its size, which means we break down our analysis to the sub-regional level (and, in the case of the Employer Skills Survey, even down to the local authority level).
We are relaunching our local data pages to make them easier to use with all our local resources under one roof, with guidance and examples on how to make the most of it. We hope this will support local partners understand the supply and demand for skills in their areas and to make smarter choices of where to target the resources they have.
To kickstart this, UKCES have produced sub-regional reports, summarising for the first time in one place all the findings from our core products. High quality, robust LMI made simple, relevant and local. We’re doing the work so our local partners don’t have to. The first set of summaries covers England’s 39 LEPs, and we hope to expand this in the New Year to cover the rest of the UK.
Please come and look at what we can offer, and if you sign up to the LMI Network we can let you know what else is coming up in the world of employment and skills.
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