The Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) carried out by the Black Country Chamber of Commerce provides a valuable barometer of its members’ views, and the latest results show encouraging signs around business confidence.
However, it also indicates that concerns remain over how skills may be impacting on recruitment plans, a long-standing issue in our region which we continue to work to improve. Businesses are right to flag this up. As someone who spent decades in business, I understand just how vital a skilled and trained workforce is.
I thought I would use this column to outline what has been achieved in terms of skills and training in our region, and some of the initiatives that continue to drive improvements.
Concerns over skills here date back decades, but it’s important to recognise that we have come a long way. In 2007, the West Midlands was considered to be the worst qualified UK region, with a fifth of young people leaving school with no qualifications.
However, 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.
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 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 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.
Last year, we launched our most comprehensive scheme yet, increasing 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.
All of this progress has been informed by input from the business community.
However, as the results of the Chamber’s latest QES suggest, despite all of this work, the aftereffects of years of underinvestment in skills here persist. Data from the 2021 census shows 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. Our trailblazing Deeper Devolution Deal will give us more power over non-apprenticeship adult skills and Post-16 technical education, another piece in the jigsaw.
Now we are making a new £7.5m adult skills investment to help thousands more young people into apprenticeships. The ‘Path 2 Apprenticeships’ training programme will provide young adults aged between 19 and 29 with the knowledge and skills they need to secure good apprenticeship jobs.
The new programme will create 3,300 training places to help tackle the issue and encourage more young people into apprenticeships that lead to a job.
For years, our region suffered from chronic underinvestment in training. With the valuable input of businesspeople, we are making real progress in creating a workforce that has the skills that employers need.