The skills test: what Sussex needs devolution to deliver

The shape of Sussex’s future economy won’t be defined by how many people are trained, but whether those skills translate into jobs – and whether regional leaders can finally close the gap between education and employment.

In recent Sussex And The City podcast conversations, training entrepreneur Dan Wallman and FE leader Dan Shelley explore why Sussex’s skills system is struggling to keep pace with employer demand, and what a new mayor must do to turn fragmentation into focus.

Both point to a system full of energy but sometimes struggling with coordination, with colleges and employers often pulling in different directions. Without change, they warn, opportunity will remain uneven and too many people will be left behind.

• Training is plentiful — but outdated

Dan Wallman, founder of Tech Native Digital and former head of Dv8
Sussex, has spent two decades designing training with and for employers.

H thinks that most qualifications don’t deliver the practical skills businesses actually need. “Employers told me, time and again, they were retraining people from scratch,” he says. “The system produces learners who are qualified on paper but not job-ready in practice.”

Wallman argues bootcamps are part of the answer, especially when co-designed with employers, but warns they won’t solve everything. “If devolution doesn’t improve the link between what people learn and where they work, it will have failed.”

• FE is vital — but underfunded

Dan Shelley, chair of the Sussex Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) and a former executive of colleges in East Sussex and Brighton, sees further education as central to regional prosperity. But he is blunt about its status.

“Further education is the Cinderella sector,” he says. “We are agile and lifelong, from 14 to retirement, but often forgotten by politicians who never went to a college themselves.”

With Sussex’s adult education budget standing at £19m, but getting continually cut, Shelley warns that a Sussex mayor will inherit responsibility without resources. Yet he also sees the chance to do things differently: pooling funds, aligning colleges with employers, and creating innovation funds that scale good practice rather than letting it fizzle out.

What does this mean for devolution?

Both Dans see devolution as a huge opportunity, but only if the mayor makes skills the engine of economic growth.

Wallman highlights West Midlands’ appointment of a tech commissioner as a model: “They had a tech playbook, with skills running all the way through. That’s the scale of ambition Sussex needs.”

Shelley stresses strategy: “Be purposeful. The evidence is already there in the LSIP. Use it, build the systems, and scale what works. Don’t reinvent the wheel.”

The risk, they agree, is more one-size-fits-all initiatives that ignore local context. Hastings’ needs are not Chichester’s. Crawley’s economy doesn’t mirror Eastbourne’s. A mayor must balance sector-wide strategies with hyper-local delivery.

The wider question

Sussex is a county of small businesses, with few anchor corporates offering hundreds of apprenticeships. That makes it harder to build pipelines, and easier for gaps to widen.

Young people in coastal towns face weak transport links to jobs, while adults seeking retraining often find provision patchy. Employers complain of a lack of junior roles, a problem only worsening as AI automates entry-level tasks.

Devolution could be the moment to reset: aligning skills with growth sectors like green energy, health innovation, and creative tech, while ensuring opportunity reaches across the county.

But as both podcast guests warn, success depends on bold leadership. The mayoral authority must bridge education and employment, give employers real responsibility in pathway design, and back long-term ladders of opportunity.

If Sussex wants to keep its talent, it must prove that skills here don’t just mean training, they mean jobs.

Everything you need to know about devolution in Sussex and Brighton can be found at sussexandthecity.info