Regional Skills Partnership
Vision
‘The North East will be a region where employers, individuals, communities and government collectively invest in the development of skills and businesses to contribute to the delivery of sustainable economic success and social justice.’
Skills North East is the Regional Skills Partnership for the North East. It was established in June 2004 under the leadership of John Cuthbert, Managing Director of the Northumbrian Water Group, It is setting the priorities and driving forward action to improve the attainment of skills vital to the economic success of the region.
Skills North East has an important role in transforming attitudes towards learning and developing a highly skilled workforce to underpin a high performing economy. The size of this challenge must not be underestimated. The North East continues to under-perform relative to the rest of the UK across a range of criteria, which include levels of productivity, business start-ups, business survival, innovation, employment and the achievement of higher level skills.
Significant progress has been made in recent years. Skill levels are increasing and unemployment is falling. There is evidence that the North East is beginning to ‘narrow the gap’ with the UK on fronts such as employment growth, productivity, and average earnings. The region must build upon these signs of progress if it is to transform its economy.
Improved skills levels are essential to raising the region’s economic performance. Variations in the availability of skills are a key factor in explaining why some parts of the region are more productive than others. In addition changes to the region’s economic and industrial structure mean we need higher level skills. It is likely that within the next decade most new jobs will require those greater skills.
The Regional Skills Partnership has a critical role to play in clearly identifying the kind of support necessary for skills development that will benefit both employers and individuals.
Principles
- Advocate equality and diversity
- Focus on fewer priorities rather than many (and ensure priorities are identified independently of existing funding schemes)
- Place customer need first
- Identify and deliver on targets that matter
- Expect high aspirations from ourselves, our partners, our businesses and our people
- Build on the strengths of the region
- Support the Regional Economic Strategy to ensure progress is sustained over the longer term
- Create an environment which promotes openness, trust and continuous improvement
Objectives
- Increase employer demand for, and investment in, skills
- Raise individual aspirations and demand for learning, and provide individuals with opportunities throughout life to achieve their goals and embrace change
- Enable those without work to access learning, training and sustained employment
- Ensure all individuals have the basic requirements for employability - the attainment of skills for life and basic qualifications
- Increase the achievement of intermediate and higher level skills to support growth, innovation and productivity
- Enable colleges and learning providers to be more responsive to employers’ and learners’ needs
- Influence national policy and funding to ensure regional skills priorities and employment needs are addressed
Priority areas
Three areas are being given additional focus by the partnership:
- Developing management and leadership skills and capability;
- Increasing the proportion of the workforce qualified to Level 3. This builds upon our commitment to supporting the achievement of skills for life and basic qualifications; and
- Supporting individuals outside the workforce to access learning and sustained employment.
Skills North East Prospectus [pdf]
(340 KB)
Skills North East Newsletter Jan 2005 [pdf]
(313 KB)
Skills North East Newsletter Sept 2004 [pdf]
(284 KB)
