Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP)
If you haven’t heard yet, Local Skills Improvement Plans are a new initiative from the Department for Education (DfE), currently being piloted by eight Chambers of Commerce nationally, of which Cumbria Chamber is one. LSIPs are employer-led and locally owned, with the Trailblazer pilots testing how employer-led skills planning and shaping can best be delivered in practice.
Cumbria’s LSIP needs us all to play our part if it’s going to be really effective so please do get involved.
We’re well underway with collecting input to Cumbria’s Local Skills Improvement Plan Trailblazer. We and partners have conducted a number of focus groups and are continuing to carry out one-to-one sessions with businesses across a range of sectors and of varying sizes, as well as providers and other stakeholders. Alongside this we’re undertaking secondary research. And if you haven’t completed the survey yet, it would be really helpful if you would complete it here.
In early March we’ll be coming out with draft conclusions and recommendations to check those with employers and other stakeholders.
While much of what we’re finding in the research phase will be familiar to many, the methodology of the LSIP means that these findings, and recommendations, will be clearly validated by employers.
What’s particularly encouraging is the clear appetite among employers, providers and other stakeholders to work together to address the issues and opportunities. Some recommendations will request changes and flexibilities from government, others will require Cumbrian partners to find funding. More immediately, the Strategic Development Fund initiatives (also funded by DfE) being implemented by the colleges is a clear step in the right direction, and there will be more that we can do together here in the county with the resources we already have.
© Cumbria Chamber of Commerce