If you haven’t already you can complete the LSIP update survey here. Please do take a few minutes to do so as this is important in helping us monitor and report progress against employer skills priorities, and determining next steps. And if you’d like to discuss skills issues in more details please give Kev Warman, LSIP Engagement Manager, a shout, kev@cumbriachamber.co.uk.
It was great to be offered funding by Cumberland Council through the Shared Prosperity Fund to support LSIP implementation. Despite the short timescale, working with partners, we were able to put together a varied and successful package of delivery, supporting 300 learners (against a target of 172) and enabling the same again to participate in careers fairs. Huge thanks to our partners for their flexibility and response, and to those others who we weren’t able to include this time. You can read more about the project here.
The Land & Nature Skills Service (LANSS) continues to build successfully and is already making a real difference in enabling access to training and building awareness of the breadth of career opportunities available in the land-based sector. This sector really does provide an incredible breadth of options which many people are unaware of – and they’re not all about pulling your boots on and getting muddy! Look out for more as the team continues to develop its resources and offer.
I was delighted to be asked to be a judge and to present prizes at the recent Gen2 National Apprenticeship Week event. It’s always great to spend time with so many fabulous young (and some not so young) people who it’s clear are going to make a great contribution to Cumbria. While the work of the engineering students is always particularly impressive, the classroom resources and activities developed by the teaching assistants this year was particularly noteworthy.
A number of partners have come together to form a steering group to take forward findings and recommendations from the report we commissioned on challenges in Engineering & Construction in Cumberland. Having agreed which priorities sit best with this group and which are best addressed through supporting the work of other groups, we’ll be updating you on progress moving forward. One such “other group” is the group which has come together to address the challenge of the size of our working age population, including increasing the size of that population and increasing the proportion of those within it active in the labour market. Again we’ll be updating on this moving forward.
The CITB Lancashire & Cumbria Employer Network Steering Group has now had it’s second meeting and is coming together well. Part of the function of this group is to agree how the funding allocated to the Network should be spent, Discussion at the last meeting covered a range of topics including the challenges of Skills Bootcamps, which while a great initiative are not always fit for purpose because of the requirements around delivery and duration, and how these issues could potentially be overcome. There was also discussion of the increasing importance moving forward of digital skills for the construction sector and CITB work with the Ministry of Justice to train ex-offenders to work in the sector. We’re keen to engage more construction employers in the Network and in benefiting from the funding available. If you’re interested please email kev@cumbriachamber.co.uk and he’ll get you linked in.
