It’s time for a skills devolution revolution – and there are encouraging signs that one is already under way. Training unlocks opportunity. It gives people the key to unlock their futures, which have for too long, and for too many, been shackled by geography and poverty.
In the west of England, these are unfortunately challenges that we know well. Around 18,500 people are claiming unemployment benefits each month. Even if we are only a rounding error away from hitting the 80 per cent employment target, those figures are stark. Employers face skills gaps, stifling innovation, productivity and putting a handbrake on economic growth. Patients face lengthening NHS waiting lists, preventing many would-be workers from getting back into the job market. Some 34,000 people are economically inactive
for this reason alone in my region.
We also face a housing crisis, so the 1.5 million new homes target is rightly an ambitious one. We need the next generation of builders to build the homes of the future. My Mayoral Combined Authority has already invested £9m to open an Advanced Construction Skills Centre in south Bristol, alongside the city’s largest council-house-building project for a generation: nearly 1,500 new homes at Hengrove Park.
We need to be strategic. It’s time to take control. The employment and skills system is too fragmented. A single, empowered organisation needs to have the responsibility and power to coordinate activity at a regional level to join up a system that works for residents and businesses. Mayors stand waiting to lead that charge. In the west of England, Skills Connect already acts as a single point of access for employability and skills support, and the upcoming Youth Guarantee trailblazer pilot offers a real opportunity to deliver more.
We’ve invested in skills through many routes. Support must be available at every stage for people looking to bounce back, change tack and reskill, or return to work. Whether it is Union Learn West, recently hailed by FE Week as “striking back with post-Tory learning fund revival”, or the Skills Bootcamps for green jobs and early years, people – particularly working-class people – should always be able to get on. I’ve seen it firsthand, thanks to a fully funded, 12-week welding course at Bath College’s Somer Valley Campus in Radstock. Lecturers with decades of industry experience pass on a skill that can be applied in an array of different industries. Learners can secure an accredited qualification for free and then be guaranteed an interview at the end of the process with a local employer.
To go further, faster, we need bold reform. I would welcome the devolution of Jobcentre Plus to mayors – allowing their hundreds of staff to do more. Once regions have developed their local labour market strategies, a single devolved multi-year employment and skills settlement would allow economies to integrate provision at the point of planning, simplifying the system based on current and future labour market needs. It’s possible to do this in a cost-neutral manner, joining together existing budgets and removing silos.
All in all, we estimate that these changes – creating an employment service model for the west of England – could get an extra 1,500 people a year improving their skills and an additional 1,100 people each year back into work, saving the taxpayer around £15m per annum and counting.
This article first appeared in our Spotlight Skills supplement of 7 February 2025.
Content from our partners
Related
