"How can we enterprise the coast?" The local situation and response

1. "How can we enterprise the coast?"The local situation and response Jon Burgess Economic Development East Lindsey District Council

2. Evidence Base • East Lindsey Economic Assessment • East Lindsey Coastal Skills Audit • Skegness Foreshore Masterplan • East Lindsey Business Survey • Lincolnshire Economic Assessment

3. Local Context The East Lindsey Coastal Zone shares common issues faced by other coastal areas, including: • relatively high levels of worklessness, along with associated poor health; • reliance on low wage, low skill and seasonal employment; • low representation of jobs in professional and financial services and the knowledge economy; • a peripheral location characterised by relatively poor transport and digital links; • a distinctive demography, especially with reference to both an ageing and transient populations.

4. Local Context • 97.2% of businesses in East Lindsey employ less than 50 employees; • We need an additional 142 businesses starting up each year to reach regional levels and 188 business per year to match national levels; • In addition, the District needs a further 2,477 adults qualified to NVQ level 2 and 4,786 adults qualified to NVQ Level 4 to meet the regional average; • Quality of life benefits can be used to attract new businesses and employees but natural assets and flood risk place some restrictions on development; • Relatively poor road, rail and digital infrastructure; • Businesses need support to survive, grow and develop; • This will require concerted action over the medium and long term to address this challenge.

5. Local Context • Low demand for training in Coastal Zone, due to lack of ambition and short-term focus (i.e. on job not career); • Area needs to build on local assets to drive up skill levels within those parts of the economy which are strong; • The first step is to assist local businesses to move upmarket and from there begin to address the skill needs which emerge; • There is a business case for developing a business centre of excellence which will help local employers develop their businesses and assist them to equip themselves with the skills they need to move to higher value segments; • Developing local employer networks can be a key ingredient in achieving this goal; • Investment in further training provision is needed but should not be considered in isolation.

6. Economic Forecasts • Part-time employment will account for an increasing share of employment. • Women will take an increasing share of employment and will comprise a majority of people in employment by 2026. • There will be 7,000 job openings by 2017 as a result of new jobs being created and replacement of people who have left an occupation for whatever reason. • The data reveals that the greatest number of people will be required in the following occupations (total requirement shown in brackets): • - Caring and personal care (1,120); • - Sales occupations (920); • - Elementary clerical/service occupations (860); and • - Corporate managers (760).

7. Sector Growth Opportunities Four key sectors have been identified as drivers of economic growth through new start businesses or growing and developing existing businesses and their supply chain: • Low Carbon Industries • Tourism and Hospitality • Healthcare • Knowledge Economy

8. Promoting Enterprise “Entrepreneurship and the creation of higher value businesses in the District should be promoted through collaborative working with the existing business community to encourage business managers to take forward new ideas and strengthen their organisational capacity to manage growth and adaptation, including new process and product innovation and development. There is also an opportunity to stimulate and nurture young talent among young people in the District. This could be encouraged through embedding enterprise skills, knowledge and attitudes into the training and ongoing development of teachers, lecturers and trainers in the district’s primary and secondary schools as well as further afield in Lincolnshire’s FE Colleges and HE Institutions. This process would accredit teachers’ ability to teach enterprise and mainstream entrepreneurship into the curriculum”.

9. Public Sector Catalyst “It needs to be borne in mind that the process of bringing employers together to increase their demand for skills appears to require a catalyst – usually in the form of public sector assistance – to initiate activities and keep them focused on the needs of the local economy. What form that catalyst should take is open to discussion. A further education college is a possibility but the overall level of demand for training is likely to be insufficient to make this option viable, alternatively it might be a centre of some kind which brought employers and other stakeholders together”

10. Common Themes with other Coastal Areas Plans to develop renewable energy sector and low carbon economy; Moving towards knowledge economy by: - creating conditions for “high-skills” businesses to relocate or start up - improving the skills level of the population - creating partnerships between business, learners and the public sector Raising aspirations of the population, especially young people; All these issues are dependent on links transport and telecommunication links; But, no apparent easy solution to the provision of education and training in sparsely populated areas.

11. Centre of Business Excellence

12. Our Aims • To be an area nationally recognised as delivering excellence and innovation in care and hospitality with a world class workforce; • To significantly raise the profile of skills development to learners and employers; • To create a point of co-ordination and collaboration for employers – bringing together all the agencies and support opportunities in an easily accessible way, and creating new business networks and business-to-business environments; • To increase the competitiveness of our businesses, and increase the number of new, sustainable businesses; • To drive areas of new opportunity in a range of growth areas incl tourism, food, environmental best practice, and creative industries.

13. Link to Sustainable Community Strategy The Lincolnshire & Rutland Employment & Skills Board identified an opportunity to create local sustainable employment in sectors strongly represented along Lincolnshire’s coastal areas: • for those with no or low levels of qualifications • to provide longer-term local career development opportunities • to support economic regeneration of the coastal strip through strategic skills investment in order to provide a ‘boost’ to the local economy in terms of confidence, investment and labour market capacity The Lincolnshire Sustainable Communities Strategy Board agreed to sponsor a “big idea” project to realise this opportunity.

14. Link to Sustainable Community Strategy The project’s initial objective is to develop a centre of business excellence delivering skills training for the care and leisure industries, focusing on areas such as: • Customer service • Healthcare provision • Catering • Management and business skills The centre would address needs at the different levels required for differing roles and would mainly provide skills at NVQ levels 2 – 4. It would include provision for learners and employers to raise business quality across key employment sectors (incl tourism, social care, creative industries).

15. Concept • Links to Wider Training & Education Facilities • Local Schools Lincolnshire Regional College • Skegness Academy Boston College • Wolds College Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education • University of Lincoln Bishops Grosseteste University College LEARNING & SKILLS HUB Flexible Learning Space Advanced ICT Infrastructure Leased to learning providers (HE, FE & others) Research and Innovation Focus on business innovation & entrepreneurship Core offer around key employment sectors (care & hospitality) Business Support Provision Business Advice Drop-in Centre Hot-desking facilities for business support/ outreach providers (Business Link, Princes Trust, Job Centre Plus etc) Coordination of Apprenticeships Recruitment Support Work Placements Conferencing / Hospitality Arena Top floor conference venue / meeting rooms Business to Business networking space Product demonstrator facilities Restaurant / café space Commercial/ Workshop Units Small ground floor leasehold business units for creative industries Complements established managed workspace facilities (e.g. Skegness Business Centre, The Terrace, Lincoln) Embassy Centre, Skegness Provision of additional entertainment and exhibition space to host wider range of productions and events

16. Timescale(subject to feasibility)

17. Steering Group Partners • East Lindsey District Council • Lincolnshire County Council (incl Enterprise Development) • Lincolnshire & Rutland Employment & Skills Board • Boston College • Nottingham Academy (sponsors of new Skegness Academy) • University of Lincoln • Job Centre Plus • Lincolnshire & Rutland Work Based Academy • Bishops Grosseteste University College • Coastal Communities Alliance • National Apprenticeships Service • Government Office for the East Midlands • East Midlands Development Agency

18. Does analysis of local economy seem right? Is it consistent with other coastal areas?What additional analysis is missing?Do partners support Centre of Excellence concept?