Sector Focus
Skills
Devolution set to trigger revolution
Devolution for the West Midlands will spark new thinking about ways of improving business and industry in the region, and a good example of this is the proposed new ‘Skills Engine’, which is designed to tackle the region’s well-documented skills gap. Professor Julian Beer (pictured), deputy vice–chancellor, Birmingham City University, takes an in-depth look at the Skills Engine and what it could offer the region.
While much of the focus in devolution is upon infrastructure, without focussing on the softer aspects of skills and innovation the potential for a sustainable and more productive growth and inclusion is diluted. The Government’s own report,
‘Fixing the Foundations: creating a more prosperous nation’, emphasised the need to address the national skills gap, at all levels, while the same issues at local and regional levels were top priorities for most of the potential combined authorities. While there is almost universal consensus of a problem that needs
‘The heart of the problem is a fundamental mismatch between the demand and supply sides of our national systems’
solving, there have been few signs of original responses to issues that have held back UK competitiveness and innovative performance for decades. The heart of the problem is a fundamental mismatch between the demand and supply sides of our national systems. These manifest themselves for example, in hard-to-fill vacancies and skills shortages, while at the same time
many in our society are either unemployed or underemployed. Systemic problems like this
demand systemic solutions and new models to transcend the barriers and rigidities, along with the fragmentation of interests, which characterise our current systems. Universities have a pivotal role
to play in this, through their relationships with key players in
the skills system, especially at local levels – as well as meeting the needs of employers within the communities they inhabit. These can be developed and combined as the basis of new local learning and innovation ecosystems, engaging learning providers, employers and other stakeholders in a shared solution. The devolution agenda creates
new possibilities for developing such eco-systems at city-region levels, providing permeable structures for bringing the key players together to align and shape the demands for, and supply of, skills.
56 CHAMBERLINK December 2016/January 2017
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