It is estimated that between 2004 and 2014 there will be a need for an additional 324,000 skilled workers in science, engineering and manufacturing technologies. To help employers and individuals prepare for these jobs of the future, we have negotiated an agreement with Semta - the Sector Skills Council for this sector in the UK - to invest in the skills of the sector's workforce with support tailored to meet employers' specific skills needs.
£65 million of Government funding will be available to train employees, including some who already hold GCSE or A-level equivalent qualifications (Level 2 and Level 3) but who need more specific, or up-to-date, business qualifications. In return, Semta will work with Train to Gain skills brokers and employers in their sector to ensure their staff are given the opportunity to gain relevant qualifications and training.
Meeting the skills needs of the future also requires a genuinely strategic approach to major developments like Crossrail, the Olympics and the Thames Gateway. On the 2012 Games, we have published "Springboard for Success", a brief guide for employers on how to (i) bid for Olympics contracts through CompeteFor; (ii) access Government help to recruit new staff through Jobcentre Plus; and (iii) access brokerage advice and training funds to train their workforce through Train to Gain.
Comprehensive support which addresses all the needs of individuals and employers
People face a large range of potential barriers to getting on in life. To address this, we are providing more comprehensive support that addresses a wider range of needs than ever, and gives individuals and employers help that makes sense in their own circumstances.
It can be as hard for an individual to change their job as it can be to get into a job or to become self employed in the first place. Therefore, our support needs to be available to everyone.
And because everyone is different, people have the right to access advice and support that fits with their lives. We are therefore developing a new adult advancement and careers service to help people address all the issues that are holding them back. The new service will provide:
- joined up advice on career options, actual job opportunities, including self-employment and setting-up a business, and the training available to achieve these;
- wider advice covering other barriers to progression such as employment, health, childcare and housing, recognising the multiple issues some people face;
- an online service, also accessible through the Skills Accounts website, where users can access information and assess their skills needs;
- a skills health check to assess individual skill needs against job requirements and personal aspirations; accessible one-to-one for those who need more in-depth support.
The adult advancement and careers service can connect customers directly to the help available, including training, funding and other support. Advisers will be fully informed about what local jobs are available and the best ways to get them, and will work with Jobcentre Plus to make that information available to those out of work.
The new service will be tested and refined from autumn 2008 and will be available to everyone in England from autumn 2010. Skills health checks and co-location between careers advisers and Jobcentre Plus advisers will initially be tested in the West Midlands, expanding to other regions through 2008-09. Meanwhile, the interface between careers advice and Skills Accounts will be tested in the South East and East Midlands. And we have already begun to reshape the core nextstep service, which will deliver face-to-face careers advice, through the recontracting of that service this year.
A key feature of the new service will be to widen access to skills advice to better fit with people's lives. We are exploring ways in which an individual can access advice on skills however they first connect with our services, and for whatever reason, be that for help with housing, childcare or employment. We will be running trials of new ways of joining up the services that provide help and advice to individuals. Findings from these trials will be built into the operation of the new advancement and careers service from 2010.
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