South West Regional Skills Enterprise and Employment Analysis 2007/2008

Final Report

1.2 Scope

The analysis examines:

• The region’s current and future needs;
• The response of the regional partners to these needs;
• Recommendations for RSP priority setting.

The scope covers:

• The learning and skills agenda from 14 to 19 through to the adult workforce;
• All skill/qualification levels (from basic skills to higher level skills);
• Mapping the priorities and activities of government and publicly-funded agencies (especially the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), Jobcentre Plus (JC+), South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), Business Link (BL), Government Office South West (GOSW) and Higher Education (HE));
• Detailed analysis of sectors;
• Employment issues;
• Business development issues which are directly skills or workforce development related.

In developing the analysis, we have drawn conclusions from a wide range of evidence, some of which was already in existence and some of which has been developed as part of this project (see Working Papers below). The evidence itself is not repeated at length in the report; instead we have focused on the key conclusions and findings of the evidence, providing references to source material.

Key reference documents include:

• The South West LSC Regional Strategic Analysis (LSC Analysis)
• South West LSC Regional Skills Action Plan (LSC Action Plan)
• The South West Healthy Labour Market Review 2006 (HLMR 2006)
• The National Employer Skills Survey 2005: For the South West of England (NESS 2005)
• Sector Skills Agreements and Sector Skills Council’s (SSC) Skills Assessments (Sector Analysis)
• The Leitch Review Interim Report (Leitch Interim Report)
• The Leitch Final Report – Prosperity for all in a global economy: World class skills (Leitch Report)
• Skills in England 2005 (Skills in England)
• Working Futures, National Report 2004-2014, Skills for Business Network, 2006 (Working Futures)
• State of the South West 2007, SWO, recently published.

In addition to this report, SLIM has produced a range of SLIM Working Papers(1) which set out in more detail research into aspects of the Regional Analysis:

• Working Paper on Higher Education
• Working Paper on High Performance Sectors
• Working Paper Leadership and Management in the South West
• Working Paper on Skills Utilisation
• Review of Skills, Enterprise and Employment in the South West 2007: (Sector Analysis)
• GCSE Attainment in the South West 2006

(1) These Working Papers are available for download on the SLIM website http://www.swslim.org.uk/labourmarket/swrsp/