In the West Midlands, we know how improving skills can help build a strong economy. Before the pandemic struck, we were growing faster than any other part of the UK outside London. We had record jobs numbers and were setting records for housebuilding and productivity.
Our approach to skills played a significant part in that success and now, as we make strides in rebuilding our economy, we are about to take a major step forward with our most comprehensive up-skilling programme yet.
In this column, I want to tell you about this landmark scheme, how devolution is enabling us to train our residents for the future, and how Conservative leadership is making real improvements to a skills gap that had persisted for generations.
Make no mistake, in the past our region faced a huge challenge. In 2007, this was considered to be the worst qualified UK region, with a fifth of young people leaving school with no qualifications. Since then, much work has been done to fill the skills gap. Our track record speaks for itself.
Since 2019, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has had devolved control of the region’s £130m adult education budget – funding further education providers and working with them to equip people with the skills actually needed by employers. Investment in Level 3 training here has increased from £4.4m to £37m a year.
This has been achieved through a combination of re-prioritizing the existing Adult Education Budget, and securing new funds for the region, including £15m for skills bootcamps in 2022/23 and £6m of funding for the Free Courses for Jobs programme. As a result, tens of thousands of residents are benefiting from valuable qualifications, and businesses are seeing colleges launch courses which will have a real-world impact on the employment market.
In 2020, the number of people with NVQ Level 3+ qualifications across our seven boroughs increased by 120,000 to 1,444,000. At the same time, the number of people with no qualifications reduced by 66,700 to 223,800 – that’s a decrease of 23 per cent.
More than 65,000 people trained in the last year alone, and more people are attaining NVQ qualifications than ever before. Backed with £150 million from the Government, courses provide training in everything from clean energy and construction to digital skills and HGV driving.
Perhaps the best example of our success has been our ‘bootcamp’ concept, which provides funded flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and launch a new career. They are designed to ensure adults are able to retrain and upskill whatever their starting point, providing clear line of site to a new role, opportunity or contract.
More than 30 digital bootcamps have been piloted across the region, while our retrofit bootcamps are skilling people to find work in an ever-growing sector – as we aim to achieve our target of making nearly 300,000 homes across the region energy efficient.
These bootcamps lead to employment: Figures show that 72% of people who have completed digital bootcamps, and 100% of retrofit bootcamp students have successfully moved onto a job. A further £15.5 million in funding has been committed to support new bootcamps over the next three years, meaning more than 4,000 residents can be supported into jobs.
Now, it’s time to go even further. Our latest programme shows a step change in ambition, representing our most comprehensive scheme yet. The WMCA has increased the threshold for free job training by £12,000 – which means that anyone on or below the average regional wage of £30,000 can access free Level 3 training.
This is the most generous free job training offer in the UK and should improve the life opportunities of a huge amount of people. On average, jobs in the West Midlands that require Level 3 qualifications make £4,000 more each year.
Why are we doing this now? In the short term, to boost employment post COVID, but we are also looking ahead to the future needs of employers. According to the University of Birmingham, by 2040, the West Midlands is expected to see a 40% drop in manufacturing jobs and increased demand for professional and technical skills across a range of sectors. Clearly, aggressive upskilling and re-skilling are vital to meet the demands of firms as they transition to new business models.
We know there are jobs in sectors including construction, digital, and health and social care – but local people need the right skills to do them. Devolved adult education funding means we’re able to equip residents with those skills. It’s about using local knowledge to understand where employment demand will be, and then having the spending control to invest in the training required.
And we must be aggressive. Despite all of this work, the aftereffects of years of underinvestment in skills here persist. Data from the 2021 census suggests that the wider West Midlands has the highest proportion of unqualified residents, at 21.1 per cent – one million people – with no qualifications. That compares to a national average of 18.2 per cent. This is unacceptable.
There remains much to be done, and our latest comprehensive training plan illustrates our determination to unleash the power of devolved decision making. These powers are growing too – the trailblazing Deeper Devolution Deal we recently signed will give us more power over non-apprenticeship adult skills and Post-16 technical education. This represents another piece in the jigsaw. Overcoming the skills gap means working in a joined-up way, across the age groups, with both colleges and employers.
Ultimately, the renewal of the West Midlands is being driven by investment, and inward investment is attracted to talent, so a properly skilled workforce is key to bringing in new business and opportunities. The remarkable levels of investment that we have attracted – across sectors such as technology, transport, media, life sciences – show that we are building a magnetic pool of talent. Only recently, our region topped the UK for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outside London, with more than 180 projects creating 8,250 jobs in the space of a year.
Better skills not only improve the earning power of families, they also drive aspiration, social mobility and ambition, while rewarding those who work hard – all fundamental Conservative values. We have always been the Party of opportunity, and skills must be central to that thinking. Here in the West Midlands, under Conservative leadership, we are proving that those values deliver results.