Cities, Skills and Growth

1. Cities, Skills and Growth Professor Mike Campbell City Growth Commission RSA 18th March 2014 professormikecampbell.com

2. The Skills Deficit: The International PositionWhere are we now? Where will we be tomorrow? • It is an inconvenient truth but, the UK is, and is likely to remain, far from ‘world class’in comparison to other OECD countries • We need to upskill, big time and in quick time

3. Skills Matter, Learning Pays

4. ‘Skill Rich’ or‘Skill Poor’? • ‘Skill rich’ areas in England include: • Surrey • Sussex • Berkshire, Bucks and Oxfordshire • London • Cheshire

5. ‘Skill Rich’ or ‘Skill Poor’? • ‘Skill poor’ areas in England include: • Parts of Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside • West Midlands • South Yorkshire and Hull • Tees Valley and Durham • East London and Essex • Notts, Leicestershire and Northants

6. Core Cities (PUAs): Skill Poor? Source: Centre for Cities, 2014. Notes: 1. % of workforce qualified to Level 4+, rank from highest (1) to lowest (64). 2. % of workforce without any formal qualifications, rank from lowest (1) to highest (64). professormikecampbell.com

7. Changes in the UK’s Occupational Structure:1987 to 2017 Note: LCR has lower shares of the ‘top right’ jobs, and higher shares of the others than the UK

8. What is to be done?Create a Virtuous Circle Prosperity - Employment - Productivity - Equality Skills Upgrading (Supply) Ambition (Demand) Match/Mismatch (Skills and Jobs) Unemployment Skill Shortages and Gaps Underemployment/Over-skilling In/Out Migration

9. Upgrade People’s Skills • Make the case for skills: raise aspirations • Improve information, advice, counselling • Enhance the quality of provision: vocational education and training; schools; and universities • Develop incentives to upskill: financial; behavioural

10. Match skills and jobs • Align the skills available and the skills required: tackle shortages, gaps, unemployment and underemployment; manage migration • Establish priorities and ‘economically valuable’ skills: • Transferable and employability, as well as technical and professional skills • Utilise Labour Market Intelligence: insight and foresight • Develop more responsive provision: with a greater focus on transparency e.g. outcomes

11. Raise Ambition • The level , growth and balance of the economy combine to drive overall jobs and skill demand: Economic policy is crucial but there’s more to it… • Business Strategy matters: product market strategies drive the level and type of employers’ employment and skill needs and their utilisation in the workplace. We need more ‘economic pull’ from business • We need: more high value added businesses; move up the value chain; higher quality products and services; intense product, process and practice innovation • Employer ambition is ultimately driven by the direction and quality of management and leadership • We need more higher-skilled jobs for higher-skilled people to do.

12. PUMA • Establish challenge, vision, objectives and report progress • Connect education, training and the world of work • Create a ‘Virtuous Circle’: Integrate education and training policy with employment and economic development policy • Fiscal Austerity: Go beyond public funding • Change Behaviour: Information, empowerment, incentives and ‘nudges’.

13. professormikecampbell.com

14. Why Bother? A workforce with poor skills not only makes their own lives poorer, it makes all of our lives poorer… …and a highly skilled workforce will not only make their own lives richer, it will make all of our lives richer professormikecampbell.com