The Government’s Skills for Jobs White Paper set out an ambitious employer-led approach aimed at making Further Education (FE) provision more responsive to local skills needs and ultimately local economic needs.
As part of this approach, Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) were introduced as a key part of the Government’s vision of an adult skills system where businesses are given a much stronger voice in local skills planning by working closely with FE providers, engaging effectively with local leaders and other stakeholders and forging a stronger and more dynamic partnership that will enable provision to be more responsive to the skills needs of employers in local labour markets.
Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Milton Keynes Chamber of Commerce and Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce are the Employer Representative Body (ERB) for the development of the LSIP for our region.
Please click here to read the Local Skills Improvement Plan Progress Report 2025 and you can view the Appendices here.
Stage 2 – Local Skills Improvement Plan Progress Report – Click here to read
“I welcome the publication of the Local Skills Improvement Plan Progress Report for the South East Midlands. These reports set out progress made on meeting the skills needs of local employers. As well as being a valuable source of information for local skills deliverers, employers and stakeholders, the reports along with the LSIPs themselves, will provide important intelligence for the newly established Skills England.” (The Minister for Skills, The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern)
A copy of our Local Skills Improvement Plan was approved by the Secretary of State for Education and published mid-July. As part of the process we engaged with 418 organisations (including Local Authorities, FE and HE Sector, employers, employer facing organisations, Trade Bodies etc) through multiple engagement channels and collated results as follows:
Stage 1 – Local Skills Improvement Plan Report – Click here to read
Using information gathered from these events, the following were identified as priorities for the South East Midlands Region:
Health and science capacity-building
As the Employer Representative Body our activities to March 2025 will be focused on engaging and working with employers, stakeholders, LEP and FE employer facing teams – these activities include:
Supporting employers to better articulate their skills needs and aggregate demand in a way that translates into stronger demand signals for providers.
We will continue to engage with employers within the region to ensure that the LSIP remains relevant and reflects the skills needs of the region. We will support employers to better articulate their skills needs, work with external bodies to continue to gather up-to-date labour market intelligence and support employers to take up apprenticeships, T-Level Industry Placements and funded learning and training programmes for upskilling and reskilling of existing and new employees. Click here for further information and how YOU can get involved
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