The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) Skills & Employment Hub has launched its 2030 Technical Education Vision which will act as the county’s technical training roadmap for the next 12 years.
Closely aligned to the LEP’s Strategic Economic Plan, the county’s Innovation Strategy, and Lancashire’s emerging Local Industrial Strategy, the Vision is broken down into five key workstreams. These have been designed to ensure that by 2030 Lancashire’s Technical Education system will:
- Grow the productivity of Lancashire’s workers & businesses
- Anticipate & respond to market & technology change with provision driven by employer demand
- Start with education & experiences at primary level & support individuals throughout working lives
- Work to ensure providers & employers collaborate on the design & delivery of education & training
- Provide a co-ordinated and joined up offer through collective planning & management
The Vision was launched on Friday (November 30th) at the Brockholes Visitor Centre near Preston.
Over 60 delegates attended including business leaders and local employers, education providers and other key stakeholders.
Government agencies, including the Department for Education (DfE), the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) were also all represented at the event.
They heard from a range of speakers about some of Lancashire’s great achievements across the vocational skills, technical education and careers advice agenda.
These included the county’s Digital Skills Partnership, Lancashire’s growing Enterprise Adviser Network, the Skills & Employment Hub’s Labour Market Intelligence Toolkit and The Lancashire Apprentice Ambassador Network.
Lancashire’s recent achievement in securing Careers Hub status for several parts of the county was also highlighted, as was the multi-million pound investments the LEP has made in a wide range of local colleges and universities via the Local Growth Deal Fund.
The roll-out of the Government’s new ‘T’ Level qualification for post-16 learners, and how that fits in with other reforms within the Apprenticeships framework, was another topic explored at the event.
The launch was also used as a platform to discuss where the challenges, opportunities and ‘gaps’ might be which could hinder the implementation of the Vision, and further emphasise that the key to the Vision’s success lay in collaboration and partnership working between both the private and public sectors.
Amanda Melton, Chair of the Lancashire Skills & Employment Board, said: “The co-ordinated approach of Lancashire’s Technical Education Vision starts with education and experiences from a young age and provides support right through our workers’ lives. It also involves education providers and employers collaborating on design and delivery of education and training to increase prosperity for all.
“Furthermore, I am confident that our network of high-quality provision of both vocational qualifications and apprenticeships will fulfil the Technical Education Vision, and will continue to respond to growing and emerging technical skills needs.”
Edwin Booth, Chair of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, said: “Alongside the Lancashire Innovation Plan, this Technical Education Vision sets out a framework for nurturing the highly skilled and flexible workforce needed for Lancashire. This is to ensure we are placed at the heart of opportunities set to emerge from the Industrial Strategy and, in particular, the Northern Powerhouse.
“The Vision also seeks to build on the proud industrial heritage of Lancashire which has gifted us a legacy of innovative and creative enterprise. Employers are increasingly keen to direct the skills market so that locally grown talent will be central to their success and we will continue to put them at the heart of the county’s skills and training agenda.”
