Minutes:
Norman Jennings (Hertfordshire LEP) reported back on the work of the Skills Sub-Group, established at the Development Board meeting held on 7 April 2020.
Norman advised that the first meeting of the Sub-Group had focussed on three key themes:
· Opportunities – it was felt the Town Fund and other Regeneration projects provide for a wealth of opportunities, but that with the current rich mix of businesses operating in Stevenage that there had always been and remained some first class opportunities for employment and careers for Stevenage residents.;
· Capabilities – there was a need to further develop the untapped capabilities of local residents to ensure they were best positioned to maximise the opportunities that currently existed and would hopefully be available in the future. It was felt that there was good provision available within the town to help develop these capabilities, however there may be a need for greater co-ordination of some of this provision; and
· Aspirations – as previously mentioned at the Development Board meetings, there was a concern that, as with other local New Towns, there is an opportunity to help look at routes for young people to acquire higher level skills andthere was a need to inspire young people and their influencers to maximise their potential.
In terms of the current position with the labour market, Norman explained that the employment rate for Stevenage grew faster than any other District in 2018, and at circa 84% was the highest in the county, which was a real positive. Workplace earnings in Stevenage were higher than the county average and second only to St. Albans,. However, resident earnings were lower than the county average and lowest of all Districts.
In respect of employment by sector, Norman advised that the top two sectors in Stevenage, accounting for circa 33%, were health & social care and wholesale/retail. Next highest was professional/scientific and manufacturing, accounting for circa 22%, so again arguably different ends of a spectrum in terms of earnings potential and possible qualifications.
Norman had looked at data which showed first indications of the Covid-19 impact on the labour market, i.e. job posting analytics. Over past 4 weeks leisure/travel, sales and customer services occupations had seen an average 54% reduction in postings. Over same period, business/public services and administrative occupations had seen a reduction of 330 postings (33%). Conversely, there had been a smaller reduction in professional scientific and manufacturing occupations. This highlighted the precarious nature of some of the typically lower qualified jobs.
In relation to skills/qualifications, Norman stated that Stevenage had the lowest percentage of residents with a Level 2 qualification and the second lowest with a Level 4+ qualification. Apprenticeships were discussed and seen as a positive opportunity for young people. There had been 660 apprenticeship starts in 2018/19, a 4% reduction on 2017/18, but in the top 4 across all Districts. Further analysis showed that, as a rough guide, apprenticeship starts accounted for 0.75% of the population, the highest in the county, whereas in St. Albans it was 0.37%. There was clear evidence that vocational skills training was seen as an alternative by more in Stevenage than elsewhere. It was worth noting that Stevenage had a 16-18 NEET rate of 4.98%, which compared with the county average of 2.6%.
Norman advised that the Board now had the opportunity to build a co-ordinated approach of provisions/solutions.
Kit Davies (North Herts College) commented that the overall reduction in the number of apprenticeship opportunities in Stevenage should be considered in the context of the significant reduction in opportunities nationally over the past few years.
Norman explained that there was a lot of good provision and solutions which was already helping to address the needs of the local business and residents communities. More work was required to catalogue this before the Board started to identify and commission other solutions. The following information was available to assist in this process:
· Stevenage had 10 secondary/special schools, with 80% graded ‘Good’ and the remaining 20% receiving support to improve;
· Stevenage was one of only 3 Districts that had a Careers Hub. Careers Hubs provided a focus for that all-important transition that young people made from education to employment and brought together schools and local employers to help prepare young people for either the world of work or their next steps on their career paths. It aimed to ensure that all young people had access to impartial and balanced careers advice. All 10 Stevenage schools were involved with the Careers Hub, scoring an average 5.6 Gatsby Benchmarks against a county average of 4.8;
· Stevenage residents had access to a grade 2 FE college with one of the highest achievement levels in the county and one of the highest in the region. The college continued to grow its curriculum offer, including apprenticeships, in order to meet current and future employer and resident needs. In addition, there were at least 2 Independent Training Providers based in Town, which provided for a good balance and choice for young people with regards to further education;
· There were also 2 providers delivering ESF skills support for unemployed based in the town. Reed in Partnership and SPS supported unemployed individuals back into the workplace, achieving a good rate of sustainable employment;
· The Stem Discovery Education Centre was based on the Airbus site. This would provide for a wonderful opportunity for Key Stage 2 & 3 pupils to experience the wonders of a STEM related career. It was expected that circa 2500 pupils would benefit from this facility each year. However, to truly maximise this opportunity for Stevenage, employers’ further development was required, as was more funding to cover the running costs;
· Stevenage Borough Council, in partnership with the NHC, had recently secured funding to operate a Construction Skills Hub focused on town centre regeneration. This Hub would operate with the support of the key developers i.e. MACE, REEF, and would provide opportunities for both employed and non-employed residents who wished to pursue a construction focused career/job. It would hopefully link to the STEM centre to promote STEM related activities within the construction sector;
· Stevenage was home to a number of nationally recognised major employer apprenticeship schemes: MBDA, GSK, Airbus regularly achieved awards and recognitions at the National Apprenticeship Awards. In most cases, for every 1 apprenticeship vacancy within these schemes, they would have at least 4 or 5 good quality applicants, but they were not always local. On the flip side some local employers, including those on the science campus, were struggling to attract local applications for good quality apprenticeship opportunities;
· Stevenage businesses had access to a number of predominantly business skills providers via Wenta, Chamber of Commerce and Herts Growth Hub; and
· The University of Hertfordshire (UH) was leading on developing an application to secure funding to establish an Institute of Technology (IoT) in Hertfordshire. If successful, this funding would provide capital finds to develop state of the art premises, equipment and curriculum to meet the needs of local employers at Level 3 and above. UH had indicated that the focus of their application would be Life Science.
In respect of the next steps, Norman reported that the Skills Sub-Group had agreed to establish a small working group to take forward the skills agenda to the next steps. The working group had put together an outline action plan as follows:
1. Establish an assessment of currently available programmes and initiatives, to be led by SBC with support from Herts LEP and NHC;
2. To commission a more detailed analysis of the Stevenage skills and labour market (similar to a county wide approach undertaken by the LEP/HCC);
3. Further review the current Herts Skills Strategy to establish relevance to a similar Stevenage strategy;
4. To provide a review of similar approaches in other towns;
5. Produce video/social media content to help to promote the wonderful business base and therefore opportunities available in the Town, to be led by SBC;
6. Having undertaken steps 1 – 4 above, to develop a Stevenage Skills Strategy, to be led by SBC and members of the Skills Sub-Group;
7. To develop draft project proposals, to be led by the Skills Sub-Group and using measures to appraise projects;
8. To develop a skills page within the Stevenage Even Better website to be led by SBC with links to HOP, NHC, Stem Centre, showcasing local employers etc.
Norman advised that there was a lot of discussion at the Sub-Group about the importance of using the excellent business assets that Stevenage had to raise further the aspirations of both young people and their influencers. It was agreed that using video or social media content to promote Stevenage excellence may assist with raising aspirations. However, it was important that there was clarity regarding the audience, i.e. young people and/or influencers, such as parents/teachers etc.
In order to avoid duplication of efforts, the Board was informed that it had been agreed that there was a need to engage key employers and young people and to collate existing materials, from employers/NHC/SBC/HOP etc. Then the Sub-Group would be in a position to identify gaps and a budget requirement. Once produced, an approach would need to be agreed to the sharing and distributing of the materials.