Businesses to help reshape training

GOVERNMENT PILOT SCHEME UNDER WAY

BUSINESSES have been invited to take part in a pioneering scheme that will help pave the way for a new approach to how skills programmes are delivered.

The Leicester and Leicestershire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) pilot, led by East Midlands Chamber, is one of eight trailblazer areas funded by the Department for Education.

The pilot phase has been looking for companies in logistics, manufacturing and sports and human health to take part.

Chris Hobson, director of policy and external affairs at East Midlands Chamber, said: “We often hear there is a gap between education providers and employers when it comes to skills provision, and how this places businesses at a disadvantage when it comes to filling vacancies.

“The LSIP pilot is a fantastic opportunity for the business community to put itself at the centre of this agenda so learners coming out of our colleges are well-equipped with the right knowledge, skills and behaviours for the demands of our labour market.

“To ensure the LSIP accurately reflects the needs of employers in the region, it’s important we hear from as many people from our target sectors as possible.

“This could include frontline staff, operations and support staff, team leaders, managers, HR departments or learning and development professionals.

“Participants will play an integral role in ensuring the future knowledge, skills and behaviour requirements are provided for within Leicestershire.”

The first phase of the LSIP pilot involves collecting data via a mobile app.

Participants are asked to answer one or two short questions every weekday for up to four weeks, on five key training and development themes:

Confidence in being able recruit the people needed;

Views on investment in training and skills; to

The knowledge areas most important to the future of the business;

The skills that will be most important for the business;

The behaviours most important for the business’s team to have.

Chris said: “Our approach is very different to what’s come before and harnesses technology in a way that past approaches haven’t.

“By trialling data gathering through regular but less-intrusive surveys via a mobile phone app, as opposed to the traditional focus groups or one-off in-depth surveys, we hope to be able to get a better and more timely sense of business sentiment around the knowledge, skills and behaviours they deem important, and how these shift over time.

“We’ll be cross-checking this with Department for Education and vacancy data to create a skills observatory that will identify where mismatches exist and allow us to work with those in education to help bridge those gaps.

“Through our use of technology and automation, the intention is to develop an approach that is both sustainable and scalable.”