Agenda item

David Roberts, Chair of North Wales Regional Skills Partnership and Sian Lloyd Roberts, Regional Skills Manager to present the report.

To endorse the regional Skills and Employment Plan and the three priorities as set out in the plan.

The report was submitted by David Roberts (Chair of the North Wales Regional Skills Partnership) and Sian Lloyd Roberts (Regional Skills Manager).

RESOLVED to endorse the regional Skills and Employment Plan and the three priorities as set out in the plan.

REASONS FOR THE DECISION

The North Wales Skills and Employment Plan 2023-2025 has been developed to inform Welsh Government’s strategic approach to the delivery of skills and employment provision in the region.

It has been produced by the North Wales Regional Skills Partnership after consultations with regional stakeholders, providers, and industry from April – September 2022.

There is a need to report to the North Wales Economic Ambition Board on the Plan.

DISCUSSION

Details were provided about the background and relevant considerations and the consultations held.

It was noted that the skills field was core to the Board's work and that the Board would be very pleased to support the work of the Skills Partnership.

It was noted that we had a social and moral duty to help over 200,000 disabled people in Wales to get access to employment, and it would be good if the Board and Skills Partnership could act on a joint level in that regard.

In response, it was noted that it was fully agreed with the observation and that the economic element was also important. There was a need to facilitate access to people from all backgrounds to the world of work, and the starting point was raising awareness and understanding of the situation. It was noted that disabled people had an enormous contribution to make, and possibly that Covid had paved the way by forcing everyone to think about employment in a more flexible manner e.g. working virtually etc.  It was further noted that the Welsh Government had disability champions and that they were currently pushing this agenda forward.  In this regard, the team was eager to collaborate with the Welsh Government, and to use the programme they had to ensure that businesses and employers worked with us to get more disabled people into the workforce.  A desire was also stated to collaborate with the Business Delivery Board in this regard in order to push the agenda forward.

The aspirations and priorities of the report were greatly welcomed and, as a key partner of the Growth Deal, a wish was expressed for all the work, those aspirations and priorities to be an integral part of everything carried out by the Board, and that the Board and the Skills Partnership collaborated to realise the priorities and aspirations through all of the projects.

In response, it was confirmed that the Skills Partnership would be very pleased of the opportunity to interact closer with the Board. It was further noted that the Partnership already collaborated closely with the Portfolio Management Office and contributed towards the delivery of the Growth Deal. Therefore, they wished to report to the Ambition Board quite regularly on the development of the action plan for the skills plan and to provide updates.

The wide range of stakeholders who were part of the plan e.g. from the education field, trade unions, regional bodies etc. were welcomed.

Reference was made to the Welsh Government's intention to establish the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (CTER), which would replace the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and be responsible for strategy, funding and overseeing the sectors of further education, higher education, adult education and adult learning in the community and apprenticeships and training. It was noted that the body would be operational within a year and it would be an important interface for the Regional Skills Partnership.  One of the body's first tasks would be to develop their proposed strategy for all of the post-compulsory education and training across Wales, and it was important for this strategy to correspond with what was deriving from the region. On that basis, an early discussion was needed with the body, and Maria Hinfelaar (Glyndŵr University Representative) noted that she would be very happy to contact the Chair of the Commission to make those connections.

In response, it was noted that discussions on an officers' level had already commenced, but it would be very beneficial if contact could be made with the Chair.

It was emphasised that the strategy had been written in partnership with the education sector in the region and it was considered that it was fair to say that this was the most operational partnership between education bodies and the regional skills partnership in the whole of Wales. The importance of the document was emphasised, especially for the further education sector in terms of leading the discussions with the Welsh Government, as this would be essentially important as the funding landscape diversified, and it was noted that this document was a good way of ensuring that there was no duplication across the various plans.

The observation in the document on re-skilling was welcomed and it was noted that this was important and timely, especially in light of recent news that the 2 Sisters factory in Llangefni would close.

David Roberts (Chair of the North Wales Regional Skills Partnership) and Sian Lloyd Roberts (Regional Skills Manager) were thanked for the presentation and for the work in preparing the strategy.  It was noted that the Board would continue with the good and close relationship with Partnership, and it looked forward to seeing an action plan deriving from the strategy.