South West Regional Skills Enterprise and Employment Analysis 2007/2008

Final Report

8. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION

D Enterprise, Creativity and Innovation

D1 Issues

• Entrepreneurship is one of the Government’s five ‘productivity drivers’. The South West is above the national average in terms of entrepreneurial activity, characterised as it is by a high degree of SME and self-employment. Support with establishing and sustaining new business is essential to the economic success of the region.

• The main barriers to entrepreneurial activity include lack of access to advice. BL services within the region are currently being re-organised and the simplification agenda is seeking to reduce the confusing array of business support products.

• If entrepreneurial activity is to be encouraged amongst young people, then there is a need to raise the educational importance attached by young people (and those who influence them) to enterprise experience and capabilities. Whilst enterprise training is taking place, there is no strategic overview of this activity and little understanding of the nature, level and funding of provision in the region. SLIM is in the process of commissioning a review to gain a greater understanding of enterprise training for young people.

• ‘Creativity’ as the generation of new ideas – either new ways of looking at existing problems, or of seeing new opportunities, perhaps by exploiting emerging technologies or changes in markets - and ‘Innovation’ as the successful exploitation of new ideas. There is a strong link with skills in engineering, design, maths and technology, subjects which are declining in popularity the region.

D2 Recommendations

• A region-wide strategy for encouraging and supporting and enterprise training should be developed following the outcome of the SLIM study to map the scale of enterprise training in the region.

• That the ESP considers how partners might contribute more fully to:

• The development of innovation and creativity skills;
• The encouragement of graduate employment opportunities;
• The encouragement of a greater take up of maths and sciences in the region, reversing recent trends.
• Creativity which needs to be part of technological and scientific learning, and also of management or business studies;
• Encourage universities and SMEs to form stronger links.
• Ensure that HE courses do more to prepare students to work with, and understand, other specialists.
• Encourage the establishment of centres of excellence, combining creativity, technology and business teaching.

• Colleges are developing innovation units. HEIs all have Innovation Units, Enterprise Divisions and Graduate placement programmes. These could be more effectively networked and lessons learned.