It's time for businesses to Speak up to Skill Up

Finding the right people for the job has been a problem as long as there have been jobs, but in the modern economy it’s a different challenge.

Our region sits at the cutting edge when it comes to advanced manufacturing, innovation around hydrogen and low carbon technologies, and even supporting the UK’s space sector through our North East Satellite Applications Centre of Excellence.

That’s exactly where we want to be, but it does present a challenge to our education providers – how can we teach the next generation how to do jobs which are still being invented?

The answer might be to focus on the fundamentals, those core skills which are needed in almost every workplace – things like communications, resilience and, increasingly, digital skills.

Focusing on communications skills – one in four businesses we’ve spoken to (38%) have told us that the ability to communicate effectively is the most important characteristic an employee can have.

We all know the value of getting our point across, whether that’s in person, on the phone or over email – so is it a skill we need to focus on more in education?

That’s where our work fits in.

Rachel Anderson, Assistant Director, North East England Chamber of Commerce (Image: The North East of England Chamber of Commerce)

The Chamber has been tasked by government to put together a Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) for the region.

The LSIP is a blueprint for skills provision, and differs from previous skills initiatives in one important way – it is backed by legislation.

The region’s Further Education colleges and training providers will be required to show how they are aligning to the LSIP and then assessed by Ofsted on how well they are doing it.

A skills blueprint, however, is only as good as the information used to create it.

We need businesses across the region to tell us their skills needs, both for now and for the future.

In other words – Speak Up to Skill Up.

We’ve already gathered some clear, valuable insights.

As well as the hard numbers on sector shortages and softer skills, we’ve also heard anecdotal insight on a low candidate numbers, candidates without the required skills and experience, and the difficulty formal qualifications and approaches to learning seem to have keeping up with changing technology.

That’s why we need businesses of all sizes, shapes and sectors to contribute their views.

There are many ways to get involved, from speaking to our team one-on-one, to taking part in an online survey, to attending one of our skills workshops.

We have a workshop taking place at AV Dawson in Middlesbrough on Tuesday 25th April at 9.30am, and another at the Village Hotel at Silverlink in North Tyneside on Friday 28th April, also at 9.30am.

By sharing your views, you can help make the LSIP as effective a plan as possible, shaping skills provision for our region’s future economic success.

So, let’s Speak Up to Skill Up!

Rachel Anderson

Assistant Director

North East England Chamber of Commerce