Rural areas in the North of England: Skills issues

1. Rural areas in the North of England: Skills issues Professor Frank Peck (CRED Director) Centre for Regional Economic Development

2. Skills issues for rural areas in the North • Cumbria Chamber of Commerce with CRED, UoC (2012) Cumbria LEP Business Plan Evidence-base • CRED (2013; 2014) Skills scoping for Cumbria phase 1 and phase 2 reports prepared for Cumbria LEP, Employment and Skills Commission (Funded by ESF Skills for the Workforce 2012-15 Programme) • CRED (2014) Overview of higher level skills needs in Cumbria prepared for Cumbria LEP Employment and Skills Commission • CRED (2015) Evaluation of “the Edge in Cumbria” prepared for Cumbria LEP Employment and Skills Commission • CRED (2014) Employer perception of young people’s employability and “work-ready” skills in Cumbria (funded by for INSPIRA) • Current project joint with Northumbria University – Borderlands 2

3. Identifying skills issues for Cumbria • Sector-specific skills issues: • Advanced manufacturing, Energy, Food & drink, Tourism • Transport & logistics, Land-based, Creative & cultural • Generic skills issues: • ICT and IT skills • STEM Skills • Leadership & management • Work-readiness particularly of young people • Transversal skills • Basic skills • Customer service skills

4. Key points on skills for sectors in Cumbria

5. Key points on skills for sectors in Cumbria

6. Skills issue in Cumbria – what’s “rural” about it? • Sectoral issues (typically high location quotients in): • Tourism and environment, Food & drink, Land-based industry, Energy and resources, manufacturing • Structural issues • High proportion of SMBs (small and microbusinesses) in rural areas • Generic issue – impacts of sparcity on rural labour markets • Restricts job seekers access to training and employment choices. • Limits young people’s access to work experience. • Affects employers’ recruitment and skills formation strategies. • Symbiotic relationship between local employers and local communities becoming less sustainable due to: • a) ageing and decline of WAP and • b) pace of technological change and demand for continuous training • c) Pressure for employers to recruitment from wider fields.

7. Work ready skills and young people in Cumbria • In-depth interviews with 20 employers across all areas of Cumbria in 2014 • What skills do they look for in new young recruits? • “Can-do” attitude, initiative, confidence • Communication skills • Flexible, adaptable • Understand company culture • Leadership potential • Good organisation • Expect recruits to arrive with relevant social skills. • Recognise benefit of substantive work experience (not just short visits). • Employers views of young people? – most felt they lacked awareness of what it means to be work-ready. • Young peoples views of employers? – barriers to accessing work experience (distance, cost, choice) a significant disadvantage.

8. Labour markets in rural areas beyond Cumbria?

9. GVA per head across the Borderlands

10. Trends in GVA per head of Population

11. Population aged over 65 Borderlands compared to UK 1997 – 2014

12. Change in Proportion of WAP 1997-2014

13. The Ten Point Plan – skills in rural areas • Government will: • recognise small schools in sparsely populated areas in their funding formula. • focus efforts to support school improvement in underperforming areas, including rural areas……. • invite local areas to participate in the reshaping, re-commissioning and ongoing commissioning of local post-16 skills provision • increase apprenticeships in rural areas …… in food and farming and by helping small tourism businesses… • In the current bidding round for Enterprise Zones…give preference to proposals involving smaller towns, districts and rural areas. • Ensure that businesses in all Enterprise Zones in rural areas will be able to access high speed broadband.

14. Rural areas in the North of England: Skills issues Professor Frank Peck (CRED Director) Centre for Regional Economic Development