PGB Learning and Talent Development Flagship Report 071019

Executive Summary  We have developed strategic objectives for the ESB which align to the LES, Plan for Employment and Skills, STEM strategy and the Plymouth Challenge Aspiration Strand

Learning and Talent Development Flagship

Introduction

This report represents the work of the Learning and Talent and Development Flagship over the last 16 months and across the current four strategic objectives identified from the Plan for Employment and Skills It highlights progress made, and issues that will require attention

Since our last report there have been significant achievements that demonstrate work that has been taking place within and outside of the plan; all are worth recognising to demonstrate the positive impact of a city which works in partnership

Executive Summary

 We have developed strategic objectives for the ESB which align to the LES, Plan for Employment and Skills, STEM strategy and the Plymouth Challenge (Aspiration Strand)

 We have begun to engage with schools in earnest, launching our first Employers Expo at Eggbuckland College which has been well received and unites businesses with the CEIAG agenda

 Plymouth has been the most successful LA across the HoTSW LEP in sourcing &

matching Enterprise Advisers with schools

 The region wide Institute of Technology is being delivered in Plymouth by the University

of Plymouth and City College

 City College launched their Maths Centre of Excellence earlier this year offering excellence in teaching maths and helping to share good practice

 Our STEM strategy, with resource from the University of Plymouth, PCC and Section 106 funds to support a STEM Coordinator, is now in implementation across the City

 Our post 16 training and apprenticeship providers continue to be ranked in the top ten

of the country, most recently for student and learner satisfaction

 Building Plymouth has continued to lead the way across the Peninsula as the programme of choice for the Construction and Built Environment sector and recognised again as a regional award winner

 Our sector development work has continued and hospitality and the visitor economy are now working together as a group and will have a delivery plan for combined activity from the end of October 2019

 Working with Peninsula owners of Careers South West Group Ltd, we have moved to improve the financial stability of the business thereby realising greater benefits to young people

 The Local Authority has brought in house our Adult Education Service delivered by OCSW to retain £1.4m in the city and improve the service offered to adults

 Apprenticeship numbers are lower than previous years and work is being undertaken to rectify this particularly with small and micro businesses

 Whilst the number of residents on JSA is very low, we still possess significant numbers

on with those who are longer term and unemployed and with health related issues with mental health being identified as a significant issue

 Our Employment and Skills Board is now represented on the Heart of the South LEP Skills Advisory Panel

Match Skills with Demand

Apprenticeships

 We have been monitoring Apprenticeship starts closely as the Apprenticeship Reforms have been introduced Overall, starts are down on the previous year However, there has been an increase in apprenticeship starts at higher level in both the 19-24 age group and 25+ giving indication of the increased offer available to local companies and ability

to use their levy as part of workforce development

 At higher levels (level 4 +), the University of Plymouth has developed 8 degree Apprenticeships and a further 6 in development City College also has been building on its current higher level offer to business and offering career progression

 Reasons for the reduction in starts at Intermediate (L2) and Advanced (L3) are multiple and coincide with the national picture on apprenticeships Government priority has been to support levy paying businesses and enabling them to maximise their levy to the detriment of our larger number of non-levy SME and micro businesses, who we know are struggling to understand the changes, combined with what has been thus far any clear view of Brexit situation and impact on forward planning

 We are supporting a number of national initiatives to promote the value of apprenticeships in Plymouth These include the South West Apprenticeship Ambassador Network where we hosted an event at Kawasaki earlier this year attended by 60

delegates and will continue to host a series of events in Plymouth for employers to see the value of apprenticeships

 The Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) project is being delivered by the Devon and Cornwall Training Provider Network and will focus on assisting schools with their statutory duty to provide impartial careers advice and guidance to young people

by providing them with a bespoke package of comprehensive support and information about apprenticeships this will add value to engaging with young people across the City and complement the work already being delivered as part of the Plymouth Careers Hub

 The Apprenticeship Jobs Fair hosted by Building Plymouth and The Plymouth Manufacturing Group continues to see nearly a thousand people attend an event showcasing the apprenticeship opportunities across the city in these sectors

 We are planning to undertake more sector-based events across to make our residents more aware of the opportunities available with hospitality being our next aim

 More needs to be understood at a regional and sub-regional level on the apprenticeship levy available thereby enabling greater reallocation of resources to supply chains with that which is underspent

 As a City, we have had national recognition with apprenticeship delivery through City College, as well as one of our private providers Skills Group, both being ranked in the top ten tables across the country

 We now have Secondary School representation on the Employment and Skills Board providing alignment the Aspiration strand of the Plymouth Challenge

 We are collaborating with pilot schools to showcase our employer sectors directly; the first was our Careers Expo in late September with a target audience of year 7 and 8 Early indications are it was well received as a quality event

Challenge

Apprenticeship reform messages from central Government have been found to be confusing and potentially damaging to recruitment by our small and micro employers

 We will need to support our SME employers with key messages and encouraging take

up with apprenticeships and help them understand the processes involved The digital apprenticeship service will also be able to support non-levy paying employers

Careers Education Information Advice and Guidance

 The Government set out a requirement in its statutory careers guidance to schools for all schools to be matched with an Enterprise Adviser (EA) by 2020 An EA is a volunteer from business working closely with the school to provide strategic support in the development of their careers strategy Working with and through the Heart of the South West (HotSW) Careers Hub:

 Plymouth has 12 schools (increasing from 7 in the first phase) in the Careers Hub benefitting from additional support through an Enterprise Coordinator to develop their careers strategies to meet the Gatsby benchmarks for good careers guidance

 100% of mainstream secondary schools (14) are matched with an Enterprise Adviser and are now part of the Enterprise Adviser Network – fulfilling the requirement set out in the statutory careers guidance to be achieved by 2020

 Two thirds of the Grammar schools are matched with the remaining school to be matched this term

 Two of our 6 Special Schools (Mount Tamar and Brook Green Centre for Learning) are in the Careers Hub with Longcause also being part of the Enterprise Adviser Network

 The Careers Hub Senior Enterprise Coordinator for Plymouth is working with the network of Plymouth Enterprise Advisers to implement a mentoring programme with small cohorts of students in each school This aims to help improve confidence and raise aspirations, contributing to the LA led activities identified as part of the Plymouth Challenge The programme has commenced during this Autumn term

 Plymouth has been the most successful LA across the HoTSW LEP in sourcing &

matching Enterprise Advisers with schools

 The Hub has now sourced 9 Cornerstone Employers with a view to potentially sourcing

an additional 3 Cornerstone Employers work together with their networks, the wider business community and the local Enterprise Coordinator or Hub Lead, to ensure all young people in an area have the opportunities they need to be prepared and inspired for the world of work

 The Hub are also in the process of surveying schools to establish demand for a number

of CPD opportunities that will help to build careers expertise as part of a whole school approach including training for governors & developing industry placement

opportunities for teachers This will be resourced by the Plymouth & Peninsula Youth

Deal investment allocated to the Hub Activity is likely to start towards the end of the Autumn term / start of Spring term

 Building Plymouth have utilised the Construction Excellence South West Adopt a School programme to offer a suite of employer activities and is now in 14 of our Secondary schools

 Skills Show South West returned in March of this year for a third time with increased footfall from schools as well as an evening session for parents showing increasing footfall

 Our combined PMG and Building Plymouth Apprenticeship event held in March is in its third year and growing ever more popular as a landmark in the CEIAG calendar for the City

 As an ESB we would like to replicate these events across our other key sectors working with sector representatives, CEIAG coordinators in schools, for example

 Through our STEM delivery plan we have delivered a Summer of STEM activity as reported on at the growth Board earlier this year

Challenge

Since the last Growth Board we have drawn together the CEIAG picture across the City, and the funding streams The picture is confusing and suggests competition and not synergy in effort It demonstrates that that Government should review this by way of what we have found and focus

on fewer initiatives that have to provide greater accountability

 The new Ofsted inspection framework places increasing emphasis on schools to adhere

to the National Careers Strategy and the Baker clause We will be monitoring this closely and reporting to the Plymouth Education Board, the RSI and Ofsted as non-compliance has been observed

Prepare for Work and Address Worklessness

NEET’s

 As at August 2019, our NEET figures have increased by 0.8% to 6.1% from 2018 Whilst this is a marginal increase we have been increasing monitoring work to support this cohort and through delivery of the Transitions contract

 We have undertaken deep dive research to understand the NEET cohort we have so we can address and support directly

 We have developed a new specification that will begin in August 2020 and coincide with increased focus and support for this cohort with the overall aim of reducing those who NEET

 We have also held our first Employability Conference in September that will launch work specific work on Gatsby benchmark 3; supporting the needs of each pupil and

identifying good practice that can be shared

Welfare Reform/Unemployed Adults

 As at July this year there were 912 people claiming JSA compared to a figure reported last June of 1,986 people The downward trend is good news as we move towards full employment However, we still have considerable numbers who are on Incapacity Benefit and ESA totalling 10,841, again this group in the main will be Long Term Unemployed and on Universal Credit

 This presents considerable challenges to employers when trying to recruit to their businesses who are not able to recruit from “traditional” sources but must consider other client groups who may require more support for job entry

 JCP continue to deliver sector based work academies to support new entrants and employers

 The LEP will be a recipient of the National Retraining Scheme that has been piloted in the North West and we are currently supporting the development of this for Plymouth residents who may be considering changing careers or develop their skills in

employment

 The ESB will be working closely with the Inclusive Growth Flagship to support this agenda and there is already ESB representation on this flagship Current developments include helping to develop the charter for businesses and maximising social value from contracts

 Building Plymouth has developed a capital procurement pipeline across the city demonstrating the value of joined up thinking and also working to establish how best to extract social value from the procurement across the city, estimated at c £1.5-2 bn

 It also continues to support older workers linking people to jobs and opportunities in the sector through employment and skills plans with procurement values of over £1m

 The Employment and Skills Board also delivered a conference in May 2019 entitled Lifting the Lid, recognising the importance of mental health in workplace and the services that are available to employers

Challenge

We must consider how we can further work to support this client group and ensure where able, they have greater chances to enter work in the future as existing recruitment sources reduce and the possible impact of Brexit is experienced by employers

This will be realised by greater focus of our Adult Education Budget and also how we deliver the Adult Retraining Scheme as this emerges in the Heart of the South West LEP area

Improve Core Skills

 Latest secondary school performance from 2018 shows that Plymouth schools progress and attainment performance is behind national benchmarks

 In the key measure of Progress 8, Plymouth performance is categorised as below average

 In attainment of a strong pass in English and maths, Plymouth schools achieved a pass

rate of 38.5%, nationally the figure was 43.3%

 It is estimated that we spend c£2m each year on Maths and English retakes for our post

16 learners across the city

 We have a golden opportunity with the Maths Centre of Excellence to reduce this situation and to share the good practice that will be developed and will be shared across

the city

 We must encourage the value of working in collaboration, recognising strengths of partners and helping to support those who need it for us all to progress and improve

our overall citywide performance

 It is not only in STEM related skills where there is a demand for maths and English If we look at the visitor economy, customer service skills and language skills are also in

demand from the work we have undertaken in this sector

Challenge

Our challenge is to work closely with schools to help them support the demand for young people qualified to higher levels and with curriculum that matches this need

Entrepreneurship and Business Start Up

As with the report to the Growth Board last year, this theme of our plan does interface with other flagships; Business Growth and Investment and this is predominantly referred to in other flagship reports

 We support the value of the Young Enterprise Awards and the how this contributes to the growth of new business and nurturing entrepreneurial flair

 Similarly, the work of the Princes Trust is also recognised with participants engaging in a series of supporting activity to nurture business acumen

Challenge

Where enterprise and entrepreneurial activity has been delivered, the value of this is recognised and therefore needs to be further promoted

Conclusion

As Board members will see from the report there is much that has been achieved against the original plan We have a STEM Strategy, Post 16 Plan, and a Plan for Education is in place

We will undertake a refresh of the Plan for Employment and Skills and look to maintain the joined up approach as well as make sure that we are maximising our limited resources

Key actions for 2019-20

Autumn 2019

 From June 2019 the Employment and Skills Board will focus on its four strategic objectives that members have developed for the next three years and will help coral activity

 By December 2019 the existing plan for Employment and Skills will be refreshed Work has already commenced on this prior to the report to the Growth Board

 We will have supported the roll out of the additional activity to support the value of apprenticeships in the city

 To have developed a package of information support for employers on the benefits of apprenticeships

 We will continue to support the Plymouth Careers Hub and the work of Enterprise Advisers

 We will have also developed in draft form a City wide careers offer

 We will have evaluated our bespoke Careers Expo event for potential roll out to other schools

By Spring 2019

 Have held our inaugural health sector group meeting and have finalised the action plan for our hospitality sector

 We will have completed the first phase of our public sector capital pipeline plans that

we anticipate will have a considerable impact on procurement and social value in the city and to understand the project pipeline for jobs and opportunities

Longer Term - In Year

 We still intend to convene an event for school governors on the economic direction of the city

 We intend to support our non-levy paying employers adopt apprenticeships as a recruitment route

 To have developed a series of KPIs to underpin the refresh of the Skills Plan

 The development of a full plan that begins to tackle underperformance of our schools and looking at attainment rising

 To have approached Government with our achievements and begin to see how we can obtain additional support in relation to the Industrial Strategy (STEM, Construction, Digital)

 Develop a skills celebration event as part of Mayflower Celebrations-possibly accessing World Skills