APPENDIX 2
Memorandum from the Council of Welsh Training
and Enterprise Councils
PART IINWARD INVESTMENT AND INDIGENOUS
GROWTH
INTRODUCTION
The Council of Welsh Training and Enterprise
Councils(CWT) thanks the Welsh Affairs Select Committee for the
invitation to contribute to its deliberations on the balance between
stimulating inward investment and the encouragement of indigenous
growth. This Memorandum is prepared for the Committee's consideration
on behalf of all the Welsh Training and Enterprise Councils(TECs),
as a basis for further investigation, including via oral evidence.
From the outset, the Council believes it relevant
to draw to the attention of the Committee the nature of Welsh
TEC activities, as these bear on the two areas under consideration.
It is thus hoped that this Memorandum, together with other sources,
will provide the Committee with sufficient information to arrive
at findings on the relative balance of investment in indigenous
growth and inward investment.
A key point is that, whilst the Welsh TECs do
support energetically inward investment, by far the greater part
of their efforts is devoted to indigenous growth. However despite
this apparently limited overlap, it is pertinent to note that,
once their interest has been secured, the national skills and
qualifications base is an important, long-term relationship with
inward investors, be this within their own preserve or in the
wider, indigenous environment. Moreover, the distinction is further
blurred by the attention required in getting supply chains operating
between investors and indigenous companies.
Against this background, it is relevant to outline
for the Committee the nature of the TEC efforts. These cover a
spectrum of beneficiaries, encompassing individuals, communities
and companies, and are, in essence, focused on optimising the
economic potential of the Welsh human resource. Set against the
benchmarks of quality, competitiveness and technological advance
dictated by a global economy, the tasks make for a challenging
agenda. The scale of this challenge is compounded by the more
recent economic history of Wales and by a complexity of social,
educational and attitudinal factors.
The philosophy behind TEC operations is inherently
long-term and rooted in local needs. Whilst it lacks the prominence
and immediate impact of the initial phases of the many highly
successful inward investment projects, the Council believes it
provides the path towards a robust, sustainable and inclusive
prosperity, strong relationships and a consistently determined
application being fundamental requirements. Essentially complementary
to this is the flexibility to match the pace of change, as reflected
in the demands both of and upon employers. Not only by TECs but
also their many partners, this does mean anticipation of an increasingly
sophisticated economy and, therefore, labour market. As industry
and commerce develops world-wide, tomorrow's companies be they
indigenous or inward investor will be seeking an increasingly
talented and sophisticated workforce whose preparation is highly
attuned to the contemporary world of work. The Council believes
this demands solutions across education and training in which
the Welsh TECs, amongst many others, will have a key role.
In order to assist the Committee in arriving
at its findings, this Memorandum offers a brief overview of the
Welsh economy, including inward investment. The Welsh human resource
is then afforded particular address. This is followed by the setting-out
of Welsh TEC objectives and a description of their activities.
A frank assessment of the effectiveness of the latter is then
offered. Such statements as are made are supported by analysis
which the Committee might wish to explore further during oral
evidence.
THE WELSH ECONOMY
Profile of Foreign Direct Inward Investment[FDI]
into Wales
INTRODUCTION
The potential for increased prosperity in Wales
is very much determined by the attributes of the labour market,
in particular, the skills of the workforce. Wales has been very
successful in attracting FDI during the 1980s and 1990s attributable
in part to the existing and potential skill base. However, this
has put increasing pressures on the Welsh labour market as overseas
companies located. The very success of this economic driver of
growth has led to shortages of skill and responses from indigenous
companies that their own skill base is being targeted to meet
the demands of FDI.
In addition, the very nature of the skill expectations
from predominantly manufacturing FDI has to be considered alongside
the demands in the Welsh economy for a range of other skills in
other, essentially indigenous, sectors and firms.
There follows a brief overview of the Welsh economy
and labour market and a profile of Foreign Direct Investment[FDI].
THE WELSH
ECONOMY AND
LABOUR MARKET
The Welsh economy has performed well in recent
years but is currently forecast to reflect a slowdown in activity
as a result of short-term pressures including the strength of
Sterling hitting exporters, interest rates and inflationary pressures.
However, despite this, the medium to longer-term prospects for
growth remain encouraging.
It is indeed Manufacturing upon which much of
the inward investment in Wales is centred that currently faces
these increased cost pressures. But the efficiency of the Production
sector in Wales and the tendency for some Manufacturing industries
to increase imports of components, thereby benefiting from the
reduced import costs, are each indicative of the sector's continued
ability to exhibit strong growth. This is particularly true for
electronics. In this sense the sector remains competitive but
is subject to pressures arising from advances inevitably made
by its rivals.
TABLE 1
Current and Forecast Performance of the Welsh
Economy and Labour Market
| Forecast Performance 1997 to 2001 Percentage change |
Gross Domestic Product | +2.4 |
Employment | +2.5 |
Full-time employment | +1.5 |
Self-employment | -4.6 |
Part-time employment | +10.5 |
Manufacturing employment | +0.4 |
Source: Cambridge Econometrics
The structure of the labour market itself in
some respects differs markedly to that for Great Britain again
in part reflecting the demands of inward investors especially
in terms of higher knowledge based skills.
Manufacturing employs some 22 per cent of the
1.17 million employees in employment. But employment in other
important sectors lags behind Great Britain most notably in the
Financial, Intermediation and Business Services sectors. The latter
two sectors tend to provide well remunerated employment together
with a healthy and growing export market.
The occupational structure of the labour market
has seen some changes in the last few years mirroring in most
cases shifts in industrial structure. For example, there has been
an up-skilling into the Corporate Managers' and Administrators'
groupings, whilst Other Professional occupations grew by 12.5
per cent and Other Associate Professionals (Technicians/supervisory
level) grew by 9.3 per cent. The least skilled groups experienced
declines: for example, an 8 per cent contraction in elementary
occupations/skills.
Labour Demand Prospects (see Table below)
Although the demand for labour will reflect
the short-term slowdown in the Welsh economy especially in Manufacturing,
the medium to longer term prospects reflect the consensus of opinion
that most broad occupational groups and employment in Wales will
continue to expand albeit at differing rates.
In the period 1997 to 2001, significant expansions
are expected in Personal and Protective service occupations, Sales
staff and the Professional grouping together with Associated Professional
and Technical staff. So the tendency is for growth or a move toward
the Services sector [which is predominantly indigenous company
based] and professional occupations.
Given the growth of professional occupations
when considered against the continued expected decline in the
number of elementary skill opportunities there will remain the
problem for those with no or negligible educational attainment
who are not able to meet the demands of the higher or even medium
skill range or are not suitable or discouraged by the low income
levels in the service sector.
Structure of Business Activity
95 per cent of businesses in Wales employ less
than 50 people and are essentially indigenous companies.
Part-time employment is forecast to increase
as a proportion of employment from 25 per cent to 27 per cent
by the end of the decade; 13 per cent of the economically active
in Wales are self-employed.
The following is a brief profile of FDI in Wales
Whilst accounting for only 5 per cent of the
UK population, Wales has consistently attracted a high proportion
of UK FDI at around 23 per cent. Whilst one-third of Manufacturing
employment is located in these overseas owned plants it only accounts
for 8 per cent of total employment.
TABLE 2 |
Number of Overseas Owned Manufacturing Plants
in Wales 1993-96 |
| 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 |
Number of Overseas Owned Plants | 348 | 353 | 364 | 355 |
As percentage of all Plants | 6.8 per cent | 7.0 per cent | | 6.3 per cent |
Employed in Overseas Owned Plants | 68,000 | 67,800 | 73,500 | 75,200 |
Source: Welsh Office.
TABLE 3 |
Foreign Direct Investment into Wales during 1996-97 |
| Total including LG | Total excluding LG |
Projects | 119 | 117 |
Jobs: |
New | 13,611 | 7,504 |
Safeguarded | 2,698 | 2,698 |
Investment spend | 2,147 | 447 |
Source: WDA
FDI has also been disproportionately located
with, for example, West Wales accounting for only 1.4 per cent
of the total spend, 4.1 per cent of new jobs, 13 per cent of safeguarded
jobs and 10 per cent of the total projects in 1996-97 despite
accounting for 25 per cent of the population and one-third of
the Welsh GDP.
The vast majority of the inward investment projects
in Wales are concentrated in the Manufacturing and Production
sectors, a fact that serves to magnify the implications of the
disparity of not just West Wales but North and Mid Wales compared
with North East and South East Wales.
TABLE 4 |
Employment in overseas manufacturing plants 1996 |
| Employment | As a percentage of total manufacturing employment Per cent | As a percentage of total employment |
Number of plants |
355 | 75,200 | 36.6 | 7.9 |
Source: Welsh Office.
Implications for the Human Resource
Accelerated growth in the electronics and semi-conductor
manufacturing sector in South East Wales may impact on skills
demand and employment prospects within other areas of Wales.
In addition to the prospects of direct employment
opportunities, the "cherry picking" of skills
from existing electronics investors is likely to bring about increasing
demand for skills and labour to replace those that are moving
on to the new production facilities. Nowhere is this of greater
concern than in the indigenous company base where salaries and
wage levels are comparatively lower.
The anticipation of future trends in skills
demand to satisfy the requirements of prospective inward investors
is complicated. The continued pattern for the majority of future
investment projects lies in value added manufacturing activities
such as electronics and automotive components, but with significant
potential amongst some business and financial-services sectors
such as telemarketing, call centre and telephone financial service
operations.
Investors' skill requirements, although adapting
to changing technology and an increase in higher skilled occupations
in value added production activities, still require pools of labour
at various skill levels in order to fulfil their total demand
for labour.
In an environment of increasing competition
for investment the ability to secure a comparative advantage is
all important. Improvements to the supplier network point the
way towards improving indigenous business prospects and
providing a desirable resource in attracting investment.
The continuation of the Source Wales initiative
aims to build upon existing small and medium-sized enterprises
by helping them develop as source suppliers for the large manufacturers.
The smaller indigenous firms form the backbone of the Welsh economy
and have the potential to contribute to sophisticated supplier
networks but the skill base of these needs to be developed, protected
and nurtured for these companies to grow and offer increased employment
opportunities.
The recent economic climate in the Asian economies
together with the increased competition for inward investment
from Eastern Europe suggests that there may be the need to address
regeneration via home grown companies with special emphasis on
entrepreneurship.
For the Welsh economy to continue to grow Wales
will have to compete even more strongly for inward investment
within the UK and globally and, if successful, will expect to
see even more pressures on not only the already highly pressurised
labour market but more specifically on the indigenous companies
whose skills and human resources are being targeted in some cases
by the attraction of inward investors. If FDI continues to be
attracted or is less successfully competed for in the face of
increasing competition, then it is of paramount importance that
the indigenous company skill base be enhanced and developed further.
TABLE A
Summary of occupational and industrial growth
in Wales
| Sub-region/Wales |
Occupational: |
Managers | Across Wales |
Personal and Protective | Across Wales |
Professionals | Mid and West, SE Wales |
Associated Professionals | Mid and SE Wales |
Plants and Machine Operatives | N Wales |
Craft and Related | SE Wales |
Industrial: |
Distribution, Hotels and Catering | Across Wales |
Manufacturing | N. Mid and SE Wales |
Construction | N. West and SE Wales |
Banking, Finance and Insurance | N. West and SE Wales |
Other Services | N. Mid and SE Wales |
Source: Welsh TECs.
THE WELSH
HUMAN RESOURCE
Examination of the education, skills and qualifications
base in Wales gives rise to some concerns, especially in an economic
context. In effect, Wales under-performs England which, in turn,
under-performs the more economically advanced regions. There is
also the economic disengagement that is sapping to Welsh GDP,
and socially damaging. Some issues appear to be related.
In formal Education, there is a wide disparity
in achievement and prospect. The proportion of school-leavers
without any qualification is 11 per cent. Given, the profile of
the Welsh economy, the take-up of Technology in schooling is disproportionate.
Over the more recent years, achievement at the
earlier levels of vocational qualification has been encouraging
but has tended to drop away as it approaches higher levels of
attainment. The theme is continued in the relatively low penetration
of graduate and Higher Education qualifications amongst management.
Amongst the adult, working-age population, there
has been an accumulation to the extent that 370,000 have no qualification
whatsoever and only one-third holds a reasonable level of vocational
skill. There are also the well-documented problems of illiteracy
and lack of numeracy, associated especially with the economically
disengaged, less able and more disadvantaged members of society.
Difficult to quantify, but nonetheless substantive,
there are subliminal effects caused by a lower median in education
and skills base. Smaller companies tend to make do with lower
technologies and their larger counterparts not to invest. The
net effect is a near instinctive, modest aspiration on the part
of management that acts to dampen economic progress.
The overall situation must be set against an
economy that is undoubtedly advancing technologically and, therefore,
intensifying its demands on companies, their managements and employees.
Direct implications are for a much greater readiness on arrival
at the threshold between Education and employment, well-designed
provision to negotiate the transition into employability and enlightened
company managements committed to the continual development of
their key resource, their people. For the latter, it means both
greater expertise in individual competencies and a broader range
in these skills, including generic. A further ramification is
for a tension between economic progress and inclusivity and, therefore,
the need for special provision in order to lift the less-gifted
into employment, a task made more challenging still by the decline
in elementary occupations.
The sum of all this is that there are sections
of the Welsh human resource base that are both under-achieving
and under-utilised. Yet, the recently encouraging progress in
parts of the economy with emerging or developing employers, new,
different occupations that hold attractive prospects and even
the inevitably routine replacement of employees have been matched
largely by people successfully developing their skills. The task
now is to mobilise fully this resource in order to exploit opportunities,
so that it can be in itself a magnet for attracting capital but,
also, capable of economic self-determination.
PART IITHE WELSH TRAINING AND ENTERPRISE
COUNCILS
MISSION AND
OBJECTIVES
The mission of the Welsh TECs is to promote
the economic and, therefore, social well-being of Wales.
In doing so, they have 6 objectives. These are
to:
Imbue a culture of continuous improvement
that persuades employers of the value of investing in their employees
and individuals of the advantages of pursuing their own skills
development.
Support new and growing businesses
into becoming more competitive and remaining so.
Re-skill unemployed people so that
they are able to get back into employment.
Help Education deliver solutions
that will support the economy and enhance the employment prospects
of the individual.
Up-grade continuously the skills
of the existing workforce.
By providing a focal point for the
assembly, analysis and dissemination of local economic intelligence,
guide training provisions and qualification routes; also, to communicate
opportunity for companies and individuals alike.
Achieved through a culture of partnership, these
objectives are about:
The equipping of people and companies
alike so that they can determine their own economic destinies.
Instilling a people-related culture
amongst employers that respects their employees, thereby advancing
the successful prospects of their companies.
Occupying the ground between Education
and the workplace by facilitating the transition into employability.
A seamless process that embraces
the development of workforce entrants, established employees and
management.
By all concerned, a conscious, strategic
decision to make a long-term investment in the economic potential
of people.
For the less well-equipped and able,
fair play through the provision of equal opportunity aimed at
conquering exclusion.
Diversity in solution, unique to
individual, company and local circumstance.
More accurately, "Training for
Enterprise" and the ultimate dependency on this for sustainability,
robustness and participation.
ACTIVITIES
OVERALL
Although there are many additional and complementary
aspects, activities fall broadly into three categories: for young
people, those for adults and business support; education and equal
opportunities are consistent themes. Application is frequently
in combination, for example, training for young people entering
a company allied with business support.
At both national and local levels, implementation
is via partnership and a wide range of consultation that is both
formal and informal. Amongst many others, partners include: employers
and their representative organisations, the Unitary Authorities,
Further and Higher Education, the Trades Unions, Development and
Enterprise Agencies, the Careers Companies, the Employment Service
in Wales and Curriculum Authority, the Voluntary Sector and many
professional, accreditation bodies. TECs support actively their
respective Regional Economic Forum as a focus for determining
economic aspirations and means.
YOUNG PEOPLE
Activity here is centred on the 16 to 19-year-old
age-group. Including training in the work-place and full-time
study or a combination of the two, the aim is to gain National
Vocational Qualifications for which there is a wide variety of
accredited options.
National Traineeships, Modern and Accelerated
Modern Apprenticeships fall into this area. Pioneered in Wales,
the latter is a particular success-story. With 7,500 Apprenticeships,
Wales provides 10 per cent of the total for England and Wales
from only 5 per cent of the overall population. A new target of
10,000 participants is being set.
EDUCATION
The aim here is to connect Education and the
workplace. This is achieved through an intensive, two-way programme
of exchanges between schools/colleges and industry/business that
involves teachers, lecturers, pupils and representatives from
companies. The effort is considerable with the active participation
annually of, quite literally, thousands of employers, teachers
and pupils. Again on a matching scale, Careers Guidance provision
is essentially, complementary work.
ADULTS AND
THEIR GUIDANCE
Primarily within the work place, and aimed at
relevant vocational qualifications, provision here is for adults
who have been unemployed for six months. There is an essential
and complementary Adult Guidance Service to assist in locating
employment opportunities and in identifying qualification paths.
BUSINESS SUPPORT
At any one time, each TEC has working relationships
with hundreds of employers of all sizes, effected in practice
through a variety of business support measures. Actively promoted,
these include:
The initiative developed by the North
Wales TECs and now deployed nationally, aimed at encouraging the
small business in taking that first, crucial step into becoming
an employer. Progress thus far has been encouraging.
A wide variety of assistance that
is available to support companies in improving themselves. This
includes diagnostic and follow-up, specialist consultancies.
Investors in People which is a key
area of business support. The scheme provides a proven route to
creating progressive management and a participatory workforce,
the fundamental philosophy being that of mutual respect.
Business Connect which has the task
of helping businesses optimise on the support available from the
public sector. TECs act here as a catalyst on behalf of the Unitary
Authorities and other interested parties.
A recently introduced scheme to help
companies surmount the "Millennium Bug" issue.
Despite all this activity and a proactive approach,
there would be benefits accrued from a greater level of participation
amongst Welsh companies There is undoubtedly an inventory of reluctance
on the part of companies to sign up strategically to moving forward
and in, many respects, for understandable reason. For Investors
in People, a determined effort is now under way to make the concept
more user-friendly. This sensitivity in approach could well be
usefully applicable elsewhere.
LOCAL INITIATIVES
Each TEC is accorded a Local Initiative Fund
allocation that is spent on locally relevant projects, although
an increasingly significant element of such spending is now centrally
determined. Typical, local products of this capability is the
comprehensive web of linkages from right across Education to industrial
companies. As well as projects specific to SMEs, these links including
the very successful "Saturday Clubs" with industry,
homework clubs and school holiday study camps sponsored, just
by way of example, by such companies as Just Rentals and The Ford
Motor Company, amongst others.
CHILDCARE
Also funded by Government, TECs operate the
childcare initiative that enables usually young and frequently
single parents to take advantage of qualification opportunities
in order to develop their employability.
OTHER WORKS
Usually via the application of their Reserves,
TECs also:
In co-operation with TUC Wales operate
the "Bargaining for Skills" initiative, the objective
here being a mutually progressive relationship that advances the
prosperity of both workforce and company by stimulating a constructive
engagement on skills and qualification issues.
Institute bursary schemes for graduates
and post-graduates in key industrial sectors.
Act similarly for Apprenticeships
where deserving companiesand candidate Apprenticesneed
encouragement to progress along the path to higher skills levels.
Run a variety of innovative schemes
to engage economically disadvantaged groups, including ethnic
minorities.
Encourage, sponsor and support employer
and business associations to coalesce, all this aimed at strengthening
the capability of individual firms and sectors of the economy.
In North Wales, over 2,000 companies are connected in this way.
Support companies in the advancement
of the employed workforce, for example by placing graduates with
SMEs.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
AND SOCIAL
EXCLUSION
In a variety of forms, isolation is a characteristic
of a number of disadvantaged communities. This isolation does
imply a route back into employment that is likely to be noted
for tentative steps rather than plunging straight into the mainstream.
It brings into context the significance of indigenous enterprise
to community regeneration. TECs are anxious for individuals to
participate in an expanding economy and promote a variety of projects
aimed at allaying exclusion by connecting regeneration and indigenous
business. Close co-operation with the Voluntary Sector features
prominently here.
TECs also place a premium extending opportunity
to those people who are less well-equipped to participate economically.
Programmes do allow for the pre-skilling and remedial work that
leads to equality of training opportunity and thence to economic
participation.
FUNDING
WELSH OFFICE
Activity | 1989-99
Funding
| Remarks |
| £ million |
|
| | |
| | |
Young People | 61.4 |
|
Education | 3.0 |
|
Adults | 15.5 |
|
Adult Guidance | 1.6 |
|
Business Support | 7.5 |
1 |
"Millennium Bug" Project | 1.1
| |
Local Initiatives | 13.1 |
|
Childcare | 0.9 |
|
Sector Initiatives | 0.35 |
Via FEFCW2 |
Management | 7.1 | A contribution
|
| | |
| | |
Total | 111.45 |
|
| | |
Notes:
1 Includes Business Connect.
2 Product of The Manufacturing Action Plan; please see below under "Other Activities".
| | |
The overall profile shows the weight of expenditure in the
threshold between formal Education and employability. There are
significant elements devoted to raising vocational skill levels
and to the challenging process of lifting the less well equipped
into employability. All funding is subject to a rigorous auditing
regime.
RESERVES
Where the efficient management of Welsh Office funding secures
savings, these are placed in Reserves. The product of a management
system stipulated by Government at the origins of TECs, these
funds are, more accurately, "Monies for Re-investment".
They are used to support the application of local initiatives,
also inward investment, as working capital and to subsidise management
costs. Currently under independent audit, commissioned by the
Welsh Office, informal indications are that they are fully and
properly utilised, de facto, negligible. Possibly released via
a change in stipulations, a future intention is to use a significant
element of these resources to support the Individual Learning
Accounts scheme that originated in a TEC proposal.
LEVERAGE
All Welsh TECs operate actively in the EU funding environment,
invariably in partnership with other organisations to whom they
make available their expertise. In practice, most structural fund
submissions are under-pinned by this assistance. As well as local,
projects are frequently implemented on an All-Wales or sub-regional
basis. For the most recently available accounting year and including
private sector funding for EU projects, the funds thus accrued
amounted to over £7 million. Typical projects are: the training
of women returners for entry into electronics companies, achievement
of industry standards in the plastics sector and the up-skilling
of management to secure new business in automotives.
PERFORMANCE
Over the past five years, the Welsh TECs have improved their
performance beyond that of their equivalents in England. On most
recent comparisonfor last yearfive of the six Welsh
TECs feature in the top 26 (of 81) for England and Wales.
Since their inception in 1991, the Welsh TECs have helped
50,000 people gain jobs and in the gaining of 50,000 vocational
qualifications. They have supported over 6,000 business start-ups.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
MANUFACTURING ACTION
PLAN
Manufacturing remains a success story of the modern Welsh
economy, in sharp contrast to the sector's fortunes elsewhere.
Although analysis of the economy does point towards a shift in
emphasis, its significance will remain. Since early in 1997, the
Welsh TECs have been operating with a partnership of All-Wales
institutions, "The Action Plan for Manufacturing Training
in Wales". Conceived in different circumstances, the work
of the partnership has proved robust to political change and,
indeed, to be both predictive and supportive of the new Government's
economic agenda. It has already proved useful in informing The
Parliamentary Under Secretary's Education and Training Action
Group(ETAG) and the intention is to support similarly The National
Assembly.
The Plan covers a spectrum of activity concerned with focusing
to economic relevance activity in schools, colleges, university
and the workplace, also, the support of the institutions involved.
The partnership consists of: CBI Wales, the Higher and Further
Education Funding Councils, Wales TUC, WLGA, WDA/DBRW, ACCAC,
the Careers Services Association and the Welsh TECs with the Council
providing co-ordination. About to be implemented, results thus
far feature: a scheme to optimise the commercial potential of
higher level graduates in the electronics and semi-conductor industries
and targeted training support for the aerospace, automotive and
the electronics sectors.
ECONOMIC INDICATORSFUTURE
SKILLS NEEDS
RESEARCH
The future skills needs of the labour marketespecially
local perspectivesare a key economic indicator. Each TEC
is formally contracted to conduct this research as a precursor
to assembling its business plan but also to fulfil the important
task of informing local partners in order that their intentions
may also be guided. Many other surveys are conducted and taken
into account as well but there is no commonality of methodology
on which to make an All-Wales assessment. Given the advent of
The National Assembly, this is a pressing requirement.
The overall deficiency is to be remedied immediately. Originally
pioneered by Gwent TEC, an All-Wales survey is imminent. Based
on input from employers and households, the outcome will be informed
decision-making that, for Government, institutions and employers,
will influence provisions and, for the individual, selection of
opportunity. The even greater prize is the consensus on common
purpose.
PART IIIASSESSMENT OVERALL
The Welsh Affairs Select Committee is invited to note the Council's
assessment
Of the continuing need to assist formal Education
in order to enhance its economic relevance; of the requirement
to pursue this "connectivity" across formal Education
and onwards throughout adult working life.
That the transition from Education to employability
is a crucial threshold requiring the most attentive management;
that, whether in the work place, in Further or Higher Education
or thereafter in adult employment, vocational provision must be
sensitive to economic needs both in terms of subject matter and
quality.
Of the inherent diversity in requirements and
the inevitability of closely co-operative, multi-agency solutions.
Even with the overall progress in the economy
and, especially given the inevitable march of technology, of the
need to apply consistently particular measures in order to secure
the economic participation of those members of society currently
less equipped to do so.
Of the continuing importance of Manufacturing
to the Welsh economy and of ensuring Education and training provisions
satisfy this; but for provisions overall to be amenable to the
developing Service sector and associated professional occupations.
Of the significance of EU funds in the development
work undertaken with SME companies, especially with management
and employees.
Of the pressing need to develop management capabilities
in Wales.
That, whilst there is allowance to meet the skills
needs of inward investors, unemployed people and new entrants
to the work force, this is not necessarily the case for those
in employment, yet there is a need; that the means of satisfying
this need are worthy of investigation.
That there is a requirement to engage more companies
in an improvement ethos; that there may be a need to make existing
provisions more flexible and, therefore, more attractive in order
to do so; that it may be necessary to investigate the resources
allocated to these provisions.
Of the significance to policy-making of an analysis
that has common methodology that is rooted in the reality of local
circumstance; of the considerable potential of an instrument so
applied.
That in various guises and in variable emphases,
a motivational dimension is constant to all these themes.
Of the requirement for a consistently determined,
partnership campaign in which all involved are interdependently
committed to a "through life" concept of continuous
improvement and its economic relevance; that this common "ownership"
must recognise the commercial and personal significance of generic
skills.
That the advancement of the skills and qualifications
base of the Welsh people is central to their economic prosperity
and social well-being; that it is fundamental to indigenous growth.
Andrew Massey
Chief Executive
16 June 1998
|