While levelling up is a national agenda, its delivery is very much a local challenge. As we saw in our previous blog in this series, having the ‘right’ skills varies from one context to another. In aggregate, having more skills leads — on average — to better outcomes for people and places, but to […]
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Shifting Sands: A New Report Looking at Emerging Patterns in the Irish Labour Market
A new report from Ireland’s Further Education and Training Authority, SOLAS, written by Emsi Burning Glass, shows how Ireland can use ‘skill adjacencies’ to find the workforce it needs, particularly at a time when Irish employers are struggling to find talent in the wake of the Covid-19 disruption. The report — Shifting Sands: Navigating […]
The Role of Skills in Levelling Up
To benefit from economic growth and access the many job opportunities it creates, people need to have the right skills employers need. Yet, over six million working-age adults in the UK still have little or no qualifications at all (defined as not having at least a GCSE or equivalent qualification). In this respect, levelling […]
Economy Insight: A New Dashboard to Answer the Need for Insight on Your Economy
Economic uncertainty Unpredictability is something we would probably rather live without, particularly trying to make future plans. Yet for anyone involved in local and regional economic planning, the last two years seems to have been one long story of continued uncertainty, with Brexit, Covid, lockdowns, inflation, higher fuel and energy costs, supply chain disruption, and […]
Case Study: Staffordshire County Council — Putting Data at the Heart of Strategic Planning
In this time of ongoing economic disruption and uncertainty, local authorities that are looking to support recovery and growth in their area need a good grasp of the changing demand for jobs and skills in their local industries. The most effective way of getting this understanding is through real-time employer job postings data, and […]
Why Place is Key to Levelling Up
To reduce inequalities between different parts of the country — the goal of the Levelling Up agenda — we need first and foremost to understand how local economies across the country work. Place plays a central part in this agenda and labour market insights can help us understand how, why, and what we should be […]
Curriculum Insight: A New Tool to Help FE Providers Demonstrate Curriculum Intent and Impact
There are currently a number of different agendas and policies that require Further Education providers to demonstrate the connection between their provision and employer demand in their local economy. At the heart of these initiatives sits a fundamental question: are you teaching the skills that will make your learners more employable and your community […]
