Meeting documents

A summary of developments since the last meeting is attached.

Contact: Mena Caldbeck 01296 585657

Mena Caldbeck provided the Committee with an update on skills and the progress made since the last update in October 2015.

At the previous update she reported that one in three businesses had reported a skills gap, which included specific skills relating to technical or practical skills or IT skills and that businesses across the Vale were reporting difficulties recruiting skilled people.

Members at the committee in October 2015 had received presentations from Ian Harper, Managing Director form University Campus Aylesbury Vale (UCAV), Ruth Farwell and Jackie Campbell from Bucks Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (BTVLEP) Skills Board and had also received testimonial evidence from David Hardley, a director of Thame Workholding.

Following the last meeting of the Scrutiny Committee, the Chairman had written to Jackie and Ruth at BTVLEP Skills Employability Programme highlighting the Councils support for the Board’s ambitions and the intention to work more closely with them and other local partners to ensure there would be an improvement between businesses, local schools and colleges so that young people would be aware of the opportunities available to them. The Chairman had also written to Ian Harper at UCAV in support of the UCAV’s aims, and David Handley with the offer of support to provide engagement with the Employability Skills Board. The Economic Development Team had since met with Ruth and Jackie at BTVLEP.

The Economic Development Team had drawn up a list of recommendations to take to the BTVLEP Employability Skills Board to ensure the Council supported employers and young people for the future economy and this has been attached as an appendix to the officers report. The Economic Development team were actively engaged in several of the developments already underway as listed in the appendix.

The Council would like to address the issue of Science Technology Engineering Maths (STEM) skills at Higher Apprenticeship level availability and also support those people in their 20s and 30s in the manufacturing sector.

A number of recommendations included in the appendix are being carried forward by BTVLEP Skills Hub and are supported by AVDC including:-

·         Skills Hub – This included the promotion of the Hub and its activities with employers, in particular the OppsinBucks web portal www.oppsinbucks.org. Awareness of the Hub had been raised in number of ways including an article in Aylesbury Vale Times.

·         Enterprise Advisors – Representatives of businesses were being encouraged to become Enterprise Advisors to engage with schools and colleges to work with the senior leadership so that young people had full awareness of all career choices and options locally.

·         The Local Careers and Enterprise Company – This company was independent of Government and would focus on young people aged between 12 and 18. BTVLEP had invested in the company to address the poor "work readiness" skills of young people which it was felt the current careers advice system didn’t effectively achieve.

·         The Bucks Skills Show, July 2016 – hosted by BTVLEP at University Centre Aylesbury Vale would provide an opportunity for employers to promote their companies and the diverse careers opportunities on offer to young people and their parents in Bucks. The event was being held on Saturday 2 July 2016. Members were encouraged to pass on information about this to any interested businesses they knew of and to others in their wards.

·         University Centre Aylesbury Vale (UCAV) – the Economic Development team had met with Ian Harper at UCAV to ascertain how the team could work with and support the aims of UCAV and businesses in the area. It had been agreed that a joint group of stakeholders in support of UCAV; "Friends of UCAV", would be set up.

·         Unilever/ARLA University Technical College (UTC) Bid – The Economic Development team had recently supported Unilever’s bid for the creation of a University Technical College (UTC) at Colworth Park, in Bedfordshire. This would help to support the food and drink manufacturing and processing companies and SMEs in the Vale. Further information was given in the officers report to committee. More information on the bid should be known by October.

·         Local Area Reviews – as part of the Government’s devolution plans, Area reviews were being undertaken to establish whether local institutions were financially resilient, were able to offer high quality education and training based on the needs of learners and employers within the local area and support the need to move towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient colleges. This would include the need for greater specialisation. Aylesbury College was currently undergoing this process with the support of SEMLEP and BTVLEP to hopefully deliver some of the three million apprenticeships by 2020 as targeted by Government. There was a need to ensure that the colleges were offering the right courses for the workplace.

It was confirmed that success was measured against case studies. The age group that was being targeted was 14 to 21 possibly up to 24. Mentoring was part of the offer to young people. The main skills gap was in technical and marketing.

Members felt there was a need to possibly target some young people at an even younger age, i.e. 11, before they became disillusioned with school. The local Careers Enterprise was looking to address that problem. It was acknowledged that not all schools provide good careers advice. Work in secondary schools could perhaps include extended work experience

It would be useful to have an employer speak to the committee that uses apprenticeships effectively. A couple of suggested companies  were given to the Economic Development team to contact.

Members also suggested perhaps holding careers evenings on a regular basis although it was acknowledged that this was mostly an area that Bucks County Council should cover. There was concern on how to get young people in the rural communities in touch with job centres etc.

The Chairman thanked the Economic Development team for their work in achieving all of the above.

RESOLVED –

That Members noted the report.