Spotlight on employment and skills: Simon Telfer

The Employment and Skills arm of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP has been creating solutions to some of the enduring employment and skills challenges for over a decade now and I’m proud to introduce this edition which is packed with examples and highlights of the practical activity making an impact on the lives of local people and businesses. 

My name is Simon Telfer, and I chair the Greater Lincolnshire Employment and Skills Advisory Panel (ESAP), which brings together local employers, skills providers, and local stakeholders to better understand and create solutions to address employment and skills mismatches at a local level, and which provides insight to Government departments to help them understand the impact of national employment and skills policy. 

The ESAP provides the local knowledge link and employer voice to influence nationally designed schemes and ensure that learning and skills investment and funding is effectively delivered in Greater Lincolnshire, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the panel members and officers contributing to this work.

It is our ambition for Greater Lincolnshire’s residents to be able to reach their potential in our local labour market, and the last two years has seen how vital it is that people have the skills, and access, to be able to participate in an increasingly digital world and I’m pleased that Government continues to fund basic digital training for all adults who lack the essential day to day digital skills they need.  

I’m also very happy this week to launch the second edition of our Local Skills Report, providing stakeholders, including Government departments, schools, and post-16 skills providers, with a DfE-approved common evidence base. The strategic framework sets out priorities and actions for the LEP and for local organisations that will contribute to recovery from Covid 19 and economic growth.

We have also published our priorities for apprenticeships, and welcome increases in achievements during the 20-21 academic year, with numbers of local people starting an apprenticeship bouncing back after a drop across all levels and age groups in the previous year. 

We have been working hard to build the infrastructure to train people with the skills they need to take up both current and future roles. For example the University Campus in Scunthorpe is now up and running and ready to support our clean growth sector and emerging Humber Freeport. Meanwhile an arm of the Greater Lincolnshire's Institute of Technology, located on the South Lincolnshire Food Enterprise Zone in Holbeach is a major contributor to the UK Food Valley – creating a Global Top 10 Cluster in the food supply chain, whilst exceptional engineering and care training can be found at Boston College. Not least, the Lincoln Medical School is busy delivering the University of Nottingham’s Medicine and Medicine with Foundation Year degree programmes, enhanced with a Lincolnshire flavour. 

We also continue to support those further away from the labour market and have supported nearly 50 local organisations with grants to help them reach out to adults in their local areas. The European Social Fund project supports this as well as providing training for people who are already in the workplace. Our network of local further education colleges, training providers and voluntary organisations all play a vital part in delivering this support locally.

This year we have been successful in bidding for a new Careers Hub, to expand on the work we are doing. Our LEP team of Coordinators support the Career Leaders in our schools and colleges to deliver great careers programmes for our young people, ensuring that experiences of employers and workplaces take centre stage. The LEP manages and delivers this programme across Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland and with funding from Lincolnshire County Council, North-East Lincolnshire Council, and North Lincolnshire Council is supporting 114 schools and colleges.   

The supply and demand of people and skills remains a challenge as we deal with the impact of Covid 19 but as things become more stable, there are some significant economic opportunities ahead, with our top game-changers in food production, defence, clean energy, and our new freeport. Our ambition remains to enable all residents to reach their potential in the Greater Lincolnshire labour market and to participate in a flourishing economy. 

Please read on for stories, case studies, projects and programmes, which are contributing to make this a reality and demonstrate the passion of the people working to improve the lives and opportunities of communities and businesses in Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland.

Simon Telfer