Agenda item

A report will be presented in respect of Kirklees Employment and Skills Plan 2022-2025: ‘Aspire, Achieve and Include’.

Contact:

Edward Highfield – Service Director, Skills and Regeneration

Gillian Wallace – Head of Employment and Skills

A report was submitted seeking feedback from the Committee in respect of the Kirklees Employment and Skills Plan 2022-2025: ‘Aspire, Achieve and Include’.

Gillian Wallace – Head of Employment and Skills and David Shepherd – Strategic Director, Growth and Regeneration attended the meeting to introduce the report and to give a presentation highlighting the following:

This was a co-produced locally specific plan. – set out how the Council would work with employers and key partners to develop…. Including maximising the opportuniyies of develotuion and levellinh up white paper.

Discussed with the Portfolio Holder and a number of stakeholders.

It would evolve, being amended and updated as…

The aim was to fit the workforce needs of Kirklees employers and the people of the district.

Whilst the pandemic had delayed the production of the plan it had also allowed for a period of reflection and consideration to ensure that the proposals are right for now and the future.

This was not an implementation plan but aimed to establish a list of priorities

Context and background including linkages with other strategies

Timeline and next steps

How the plan had developed

Challenges

The four priority areas identified as important

Delivery and Measurement of Outcomes

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

A definition of ‘sustainable’ was needed as this was a broad term in order to provide clarity in respect of the aspirations such as the …for 5000 sustainable homes.

Retrofitting was considered to be a huge area of growth that could be exploited if the necessary skills were increased

There were a wide range of skill sets associated with these areas from construction techniques to behaviourhal coacjing and financial…. And with the correct skills pathways in place Kirklees residents would eb able to benefit .

Money management and life skills were currently missing from educational programmes/curricula.

It would be good to be able to develop technical expertise to fill vacancies where there was a shortage of supply perhaps in collaboration at regional level. This plan was aimed at increasing skills at levels 2 to 4 perhaps some insight could be provided to people taking part so that they might consider this as a potential career in the future.

The …was welcomed  skills was a key issue in…

In respect of the real living wage… wages were one of the key elements and it was important that employers were consulted/engaged and felt that they were able to sign up to the plan; there were stakeholders across the board from smaller to larger…. Right way forward… At West Yorkshire level there was an interest in the Fair Work Charter and consideration would be given to how Kirklees could benefit from this. It was considered that the Council was in a strong position to demonstrate ‘what good looks like’ and to support employers to reach that standard.

The key to higher pay was skills development …

Transport was a key issue so that people could access jobs but also training opprtunitiesand this plan would align with? The Kirklees transport strategy which was to be brought forward later in 2022…develop good public transport links. Close collaboration with colleagues at the Combined Authority.

It was suggested that there should be representation from young people on the Partnership Boar and that thought should be given about how to engage young peopleabout their needs. Also how the businesses on the board? Could represent all business and these were taken on board. It was acknowldedge that it would be difficult to get representation for all and that it was important to ensure that voices were heard either through the work of the Board or otherwise within the decision-making process. Time to attend was an issue for many businesses; there was a need to make it easy for them to enageg and to ensure that their voices were heard and acted upon.

Mechanism to understand current needs of business and how to predict future needs,

The work was data and intelligence-led with skills audits, economic analysis including at local level, work undertaken by the Combined Authority and national work on re-skilling all feeding in.

the three year plan needed to fit within a longer term strategy.

Consideration could be given to ways in which local employers might be supported to benefit from apprenticeships

Once the plan was in place the next stage would be delivery – see where challenges are and identify solutions

There was a need to understand what the barriers were and important to get representation/input from learning providers, and also to ensure that different sizes of business were represented and that a whole system approach was adopted.

Libraries had previously provided assistance to people in accessing digital… and in applying for jobs online – retsrating?

The plan was welcomed; how would ensure that young people NEET from BAME communities could overcome the barriers and achieve sustainable employment?

The need to achieve reach across all Kirklees communities particularly those that had been excluded? Was recognised and there was a need to ensure that there were a number of different pathways for people through a range of providers and employers to achieve a good fit and to provide different opportunities for those that had not found that the school environment/    had worked for them.

It was noted that a very good range of providers already exsited in Kitkless. C&K Careers were currently undertaking a project to develop ….specific to the needs of young people NEET?

The governance arrangements for… should ensure continued dialogue and continuous improvement.

In respect of older people or those who had been out of work for a prolonged period or who may have difficulty in accessing digital…there was a project working with over 50s but the need to establish these people as a priority group would be considered; the numbers had increased and become a higher priority as a result of the pandemic..

The plan set out an agreed list of priorities and … but did not provide detail of implementation… The next stage was to build delivery and action plans to … account of what do presently…and funding for… European Funding until 2023.

Details of the Shared Prosperity Fund had only recently been released and work was being undertaken with colleagues in West Yorkshire to…..and to see how Kirklees could benefit.

Delivery – cross reference…will look at

Will revisit measures regularly

Board look at measures or Acton Plan or both

Short trem funding

Trans-Pennine route upgrade linked

No links to T-P own education schemes

The Trans-Pennine route upgrade was a considered to provide real opportunities for Kirklees….. make it easy for Network Rail to deliver the programme and for local people to access employment throughout. Very engaged in a number of construction programmes. Construction expected to increase over the next few years and want to ensure that employers will be able to recruit local people – opportunity for employers to become involved but noted that it could be difficult to …a commitment…..governance…

Specialist discussion groups…linkages…

Take on board, would want flexibility in arrangements going forward…make more explicit

That the points and suggestions raised by the Committee, including those noted below, be taken into account in the development of the Kirklees Skills and  

Clarity training and definitions

Money management

Building capacity

Skills prog

t…of pay

young people

sustainability of jobs

for everyone

discussion groups

future working with Mayor as well as small and medium employers…