APPENDIX 18
Memorandum from the South West of England
Regional Development Agency (JG 24)
Thank you for your invitation to provide a submission
regarding any "jobs gap" in the South West of England
and the associated strategies being developed. The importance
of the provision of appropriate and sufficient skills within the
South West to facilitate and support economic prosperity is recognised
by the South West of England Regional Development Agency and its
partners and is included as a main driver within the Regional
Strategy. As such the identification of "jobs gaps"
and the action to address these is a fundamental element of the
Regional Skills and Learning Action Plan.
I use the questions you pose in your letter
of 28 July as the structure of my response.
What assessment has been made of the disparity
between the supply and demand for labour at the regional and local
levels within the RDA region and is there any indication that
a "jobs gap" exists in certain localities?
ASSESSMENTS
These are undertaken by a wide variety of agencies,
training organisations and academic groups in the South West.
Most concentrate on specific economic sectors, geographical areas
or NVQ levels. They all identify the need for some aspect of skill
development but these do not necessarily constitute "jobs
gaps". Examples:
— National Training Organisations.
— Training and Enterprise Councils.
— Local Authority Economic Development
Units.
— Higher Education Funding Council.
Such assessments are valid but must be viewed
within a wider regional context as cross-functional and geographic
mobility constraints are primary determinants of true "jobs
gaps". Several region-wide assessments exist including:
— A "State of the Region Report"
commissioned by The South West of England Regional Development
Agency (The Agency).
— "Skills in the South West"
(Campbell and Foy, '98).
— The Learning Region (Field '99).
The Agency recognises that it is essential to
further co-ordinate the collation and analysis of labour market
and skills and learning data and its appropriate dissemination.
As such the Regional Skills and Learning Action Plan contains
the headline action, "Develop and Informed Labour Market",
which addresses this assessment need.
CONCLUSIONS ON
"JOB GAPS"
Viewed from the labour demand side the State
of the Region Report identified the following skill shortages
to be common across the South West:
There are also significant sub-regional needs
notably:
— Information technology.
— Electronic engineering.
Viewed from the labour supply side there is
a shortage of accessible, low skilled, full-time permanent jobs
in both urban and rural areas where transport availability and
costs constrain individual travel to work boundaries.
If a jobs gap has been detected, what strategies
are being developed to deal with this problem?
The Regional Skills and Learning Action Plan
addresses the sectors within which "jobs gaps" are identified.
The Action Plan uses co-operative working across all relevant
employer and learning provider organisations to meet regional
and sub-regional needs. In addition to "Develop an informed
labour market" noted above other headline actions include:
— Promote continuous learning as a
way of life in the South West.
— Open up training, learning and employment
opportunities to everyone who lives and works in the South West.
— Deliver a workforce equipped for
the sustainable growth industries of the South West, now and in
the future.
— Promote delivery through partnerships
between employers, learning providers and individuals.
Specific action includes:
— Derive and action plan in each sub-region
addressing basic and key skills identifying needs, access and
availability.
— Detailed action plans to be prepared
by the appropriate National Training Organisations and partners
for skill development within the economic sectors to be promoted
and encouraged within the South West.
The last action above includes all those economic
sectors which have an identifiable skill development need at regional
or sub-regional level.
Is the region the most appropriate level for such
strategies to be developed and what role should be played by local
and national authorities in dealing with this issue?
The region is the level at which strategies
should be devised and implemented for the following reasons:
— National v Regional: National level
information and associated guiding and prompting can usefully
add to regional and sub-regional planning. The practical addressing
of "jobs gaps" however, will be carried out by groupings
of individual sub-national employers and learning providers who
are best engaged via sub-regional and regional mechanisms. This,
as it is necessary they have ownership of both the "jobs
gaps" and solution formulation at a practical, involved level
at which they can relate.
— Regional Skills and Learning Strategy
and Action Plans: As indicated above these are already formulated
to varying degrees and address "job gaps" within the
wider economic and social context of their associated Regional
Strategy.
— Intelligence: Apart from the practical
economies of scale and co-ordination arising from a regional approach
the mutual inclusivity of sub-regional economies requires an overarching
view. This would be too distant on a national scale but sufficiently
close and coherent at regional level.
— Workforce mobility: Across sub-regional
boundaries this is an increasing feature of employment, especially
along the motorway axes which traverse and connect key economic
locations within the South West. Hence, the region is, for the
most part, a single coherent area of labour supply. Supra-regional
mobility arises only at the periphery and in high value added
occupations.
— Higher and further education markets
and structures: Although some further and higher education institutions
look beyond the region most perceive their learner and employer
market to be contained within the South West. As such they have
developed partnerships covering the region to maximise the benefits
of a co-ordinated approach to services and operations. They will
develop these within the context of the Regional Skills and Learning
Action Plan which addresses the skills development needs of the
South West.
— Common basic and key skills needs:
Sub-regional differences in skill needs to exist however key skill
development requirements such as employability, numeracy and literacy
are common across the region. As such similar methodologies may
be used to address these needs.
— Spreading best practice: Practically
this needs to be carried.
I have purposefully provided a concise response,
though I will of course be pleased to provide more detail should
it be required.
Jill Barrow
Chief Executive
South West of England Regional Development Agency
October 1999
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