Calling ALL Businesses and Business Groups to Get Involved

Let’s help shape future skills needs

Local Skills Improvement Plan

Skills have never been a more important topic as we re-open our economy and lives in general.

A range of industries, including engineering, manufacturing, construction, digital, visitor, hospitality, cultural, land-based, health and care are reporting acute skills challenges at present – these issues are deep rooted and systemic but have been exacerbated by Brexit and the pandemic.

We are committed to ensuring the businesses of our region have the talent they need to stimulate growth. 

Through the Local Skills Improvement Plan trailblazer pilot, we hope to facilitate further collaboration between the education and training community and business employers.

This will gather evidence from a wide range of employers of all sizes and across all sectors to develop a clear plan of what skills provision is required in the region.

When the Chamber delivers this support, engaging with hundreds of businesses, the county will have an evidence-based skills audit of a sort never seen before. It will ensure future skills delivered by education and training provides actually match what firms require and deserve in the future. This is unlikely to produce any quick fixes but means that, in the mid to long-term, we can plan to see a change in the narrative and improved prospects for Sussex businesses and employers.

Over the next few months, we will work with employers and employer representative groups, to identify the local needs and solutions to address them.

There is universal agreement that only through a collaborative and joined up approach we will generate a plan that truly recognises the skills needs, and more importantly, some of the solutions that colleges, universities and providers will need to implement to address these.

It is also recognised that we need to build on the intelligence and information that is already available, and this project will work closely with businesses, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), local authorities and local skills groups to build on the wealth of existing evidence to develop a skills improvement plan that really will make a difference to Sussex’s productivity and prosperity.

Overall purpose is to:

• Build shared understanding around skills needs

• Extend collaboration between education and training providers and employers to meet identified needs in priority sectors

• Deploy innovative and effective ways of reaching employers and collating futures skills needs in a meaningful way

• Translate needs into an effective tool to support providers adapt their offers

Benefits to Business and Providers:

• Improve productivity and fill skills gaps with locally-grown talent

• Create international competitiveness

• Increase economic growth

• Strengthen links between employers and further education and providers

• Place employers at the heart of defining local skills needs

• Improve the skills system will be crucial to building an agile and adaptable workforce

• Support people to get the skills our economy needs and give them opportunities to progress in their careers.

• Make sure people can access training and learning flexibly throughout their lives

• Support growth industries

Together we can:

• Add value

• Be different

• Challenge the norm

• Provide new insights

• Disrupt the status quo

• Be innovative

Business organisations, town chambers, other business groups and representative bodies are ALL actively encouraged to involve their business members to ensure we all help shape future skills needs.

How to get involved: Book your place now onto one of our workshops below or email skills@sussexchamberofcommerce.co.uk

There will also be a series of virtual meetings, surveys, polls and other activity for you to get involved.

Collaboration and joint working statements

“Sussex and Kent Invicta Chambers of Commerce, Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Southeast LEP are pleased to be working collaboratively on the development of two Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) trailblazers for Sussex and for Kent & Medway.

The relationship between the Chambers and the LEPs’ employer led Skills Advisory Panels (SAPs) will be key to understanding demand, with business representatives bringing a wealth of expertise and sector specific experience, and a commitment to understanding and tackling skills gaps.

Further Education partners from Sussex and Kent are also engaged to ensure colleges and providers are primed to consider approaches to respond to the emerging challenges.

The LSIPs will build on existing data and research activity from the SAPs to better understand skills shortages in priority sectors within the LSIP geographies. This joint approach will allow us to share lessons learned with other areas, notably Surrey and Essex which also fall within the two LEP areas.”

Ana Christie, CEO of Sussex Chamber added: “The Sussex Chamber led LSIP will play a key role in articulating employers’ skills needs, therefore helping to ensure our region can produce talented people needed to fill highly skilled jobs and keep the county at the forefront of technology and innovation. Innovation is key to improving productivity and creating highly skills jobs. The LSIP will help make sure the provision of technical training meets the future needs of employers.”

“The Sussex Chamber of Commerce and the Sussex Council of Training Providers are pleased to be working in collaboration on this important piece of work, in support of a countywide commitment to understanding and tackling local skills gaps. Working together, we will support provider involvement, enabling you to be in the best possible position to consult on, and consider, the new approaches developed through the plan. Regular updates will be shared with the membership to keep you abreast of developments.”

Get involved to help shape future skills needs.

Book your place now!

Ana Christie, CEO
Sussex Chamber of Commerce