Skills Policy Group

Current membership of the Skills & Employability Policy Group includes:

Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (Chair)
SEEDA
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council
Brighton & Hove City Council
Gatwick Diamond
Medway Council
Milton Keynes Council
Oxford City Council
Portsmouth City Council
Reading Borough Council
Job Centre Plus
Skills Funding Agency

The Chair of this group is Anne-Marie Mountifield of the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH). Email: anne-marie.mountifield@push.gov.uk

Key Documents

SEDfIG Skills & Employability Strategy 2010:

Objectives

The main objectives of the group in this initial phase of operation will be to:

Consider what the priority skills issues are for the Diamonds. (The Skills Policy Group will cover essential and intermediate skills and will work with the Knowledge Economy Policy Group on progression to higher-level skills)
Create an annual work plan with milestones and clear outcomes, that will deliver the action plan from the recently published strategy
Contribute to the SEDfIG workshops as relevant
Use the collective voice of the Diamonds to lobby regional/central government on skills issues and present the case for further investment

Key Tasks

The key tasks of the Skills Policy group are to:

Identify the common issues relating to skills which effect the Diamonds and may be barriers to their further growth
Share and co-ordinate outcomes, including employer engagement, with the Knowledge Economy Policy Group which will focus on higher-level skills
Interface with existing skills development groups to ensure coherent strategy development
Develop a work plan with milestones and outcomes
Drive forward the skills related objectives identified in the National Skills Strategy and Regional Skills Strategy
Ensure that partners organisations adopt and support the objectives as appropriate
Ensure co-ordinated employer engagement across the policy groups
Assist other Policy Groups in the creation of a clear, consistent and co-ordinated message on the Diamonds
Monitor progress against the action plan and report to the Leaders and CX Board
Identify strategic projects which require significant investment from key partner(s)
Undertake additional research and gather data jointly with other policy groups and partners, as necessary, to inform future planning

Click to download Terms of Reference for this policy group.

Work Plan

The work plan takes its lead from the 2010 Skills & Employability Strategy, developed by Step Ahead Research, in conjunction with SEEDA. Key tasks are as follows:

Action	Timescale	Aim/Output
Providing Regional Diamond Leadership & Co-ordination
Establish an employment and skills best practice and intelligence section on the SEDfIG website to share best practice, disseminate policy developments and funding opportunities and publicise employment and skills events.	By September 2010	Maximise learning from successful programmes to support up skilling and employability.
Develop a regional ‘Funding Watch’ facility to enable groups of Diamonds to adopt collaborative approaches to bids for funding to address shared employment, skills and climate change issues.	By September 2010	Enhanced ability to take advantage of skills funding opportunities.
Develop an ongoing ‘Diamonds Policy Response’ facility so that a collective Diamonds view on employment and skills announcements can be articulated to central Government where appropriate.	By September 2010	Promote interventions to support economic growth in south-east.
Develop STEM skills & Improve Business Leadership & Management
Develop two pan or joint Diamond proposals for funding common approaches to deliver STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills and / or Leadership and Management skills.	By March 2011	Raise and promote STEM skills across Diamonds / sub-regions.
Identify innovative ways of encouraging employer placements and increasing the number of STEM apprenticeships	By March 2011	Enhanced vocational progression routes in Diamonds, meeting priority skills needs.
Support and publicise initiatives that lead to better collaboration between HE and FE institutions, including joint campuses or premises and progression accords, to enhance the status of vocational progression routes.	From September 2010	Enhanced vocational progression routes in Diamonds, meeting priority skills needs.
Strengthening Education – Business Links
Establish a Diamonds good practice forum on education-business, sharing local approaches on curriculum development, involving employers in skills planning and developing education – business links. Two forum meetings and three best practice updates on SEDfIG website, based on Forum outcomes.	By March 2011	Raise demand for economically valuable skills. Promote economically valuable career options to meet emerging skills needs.
Identify key businesses as ‘Education-business’ link ambassadors to use as case studies and work with to promote business benefits of links with education to business community.	By March 2011	As above
Identify and share best practice in delivering business engagement activities across the Diamonds partnership.	By March 2011	As above
Improve the work-readiness of young people and adults
Develop two pan or joint Diamond proposals for funding to develop common approaches to support work-readiness skills.	By March 2011	Raise work-readiness skills across Diamonds / sub-regions.