Buckinghamshire celebrates progress on local skills improvement plan

Buckinghamshire Business First (BBF) has released a progress report on the region’s ongoing local skills improvement plan (LSIP), which brings employers and providers together to address long-standing skills challenges and collaborate on new solutions.

The impact has been “profound and significant”, concludes the report, with the LSIP integrated into the wider skills and employment strategy for Buckinghamshire.

Despite a strong local economy, barriers to growth in Buckinghamshire have long included a skills mismatch between the type of skills sought by local employers and those held by local residents.

The LSIP progress report makes clear that this is one barrier that’s being tackled with great success, with employers from key sectors embracing the LSIP.

The plan has enabled the leverage of £2.5 million from the local skills improvement fund (LSIF) to support various skills projects in the county.

These include new facilities at Buckinghamshire College Group for new full-time, part-time and apprenticeship provision for the construction sector, and development of an Engineering Hub to provide hitherto unavailable full-time, part-time and apprenticeship provision in mechanical and electrical engineering.

It has also funded a pilot volunteering skills record with Buckinghamshire Health & Social Care Academy and ‘community impact bucks’ to enhance work-readiness skills, as well as a programme to help technically skilled industry professionals transition into teaching roles.

Other skills initiatives supported by the LSIP include £45,000 from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for research into the skills needs of the retrofit workforce; £3.2 million for 24 skills bootcamps in priority sectors for 2024-25; and £5.9 million from the UK Space Agency to build a new technical and training facility at Westcott Space Cluster.

With Buckinghamshire being home to Pinewood and other highly regarded film and television studios, a feasibility study for a film and TV skills hub is also being incorporated into the ‘Screen Buckinghamshire’ concept.

Paul Skitt, director of skills and education at Flannery Plant Hire and chair of the Buckinghamshire Construction Sector Employer Group, said: “The LSIP process really gave employers, and in our case construction employers, the chance to collaborate and influence the skills priorities within Bucks.

“From a construction perspective, this has helped bring the supply chain together and work more collaboratively to not only influence the priorities but work together to find solutions.”

Baroness Smith of Malvern, minister for skills at the Department for Education, added: “I welcome the publication of the local skills improvement plan progress report for Buckinghamshire.

“These reports set out progress made on meeting the skills needs of local employers.

“As well as being a valuable source of information for local skills deliverers, employers, and stakeholders, the reports along with the LSIPs themselves will provide important intelligence for the newly established Skills England.”