Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote skills development regionally.

The government is developing a comprehensive strategy for post‐16 education and skills, to break down barriers to opportunity, support the development of a skilled workforce and drive economic growth through our Industrial Strategy across all areas of the country. In doing so, we recognise the importance of having a coherent national vision for skills that is supported by a clear and robust system architecture through which local areas can deliver purposeful and responsive post-16 skills provision.

We have established Skills England to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade. Skills England will work together with regional and local governments, employers, education providers, trade unions and regional organisations to ensure that regional and national skills needs are met.

Local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) support the department’s long term priority to drive local economic growth by reshaping the skills system to better align provision of post-16 technical education and training with local labour market needs. By covering all areas of England and identifying opportunities for local innovation and growth, LSIPs support learners to gain the skills they need to get good jobs and are helping to ensure every part of the country can succeed in its own unique way.

LSIPs were placed on a legislative footing through the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022 and the department will continue to review the policy on LSIPs and update its statutory guidance to ensure the plans remain relevant and complement other strategic plans, including the National Industrial Strategy and Local Growth Plans. LSIP intelligence will also provide an accurate and timely flow of information from the local and regional level through to Skills England and the department, thus helping shape Skills England’s assessment of regional and national skills needs, as well as influence policy making across the department and government, including the Get Britain Working plans.

Devolution of skills provision is a key enabler for delivering more effective and locally tailored solutions to meet regional needs. By transferring powers to strategic authorities, the department aims to ensure that skills investment is aligned with the specific economic, social and environmental priorities of each region. The department has already devolved 62% of the Adult Skills Funding budget to nine Mayoral Strategic Authorities and the Greater London Authority and in the English Devolution White Paper, we outlined government’s enhanced skills devolution offer to Strategic Authorities (SAs) which included consolidating adult skills funding into a single pot, strengthening the role of SAs in the LSIP through joint ownership of the LSIP model with employer representative bodies and signalling our desire for Mayors to play a greater role for 16-19 to help shape provision that includes clear pathways of progression from education into further/higher education or local employment opportunities.

The government has also committed to widening the apprenticeships offer into a levy-funded growth and skills offer, with apprenticeships at the heart. This will offer greater flexibility to learners and employers across all areas of the country. As a first step, this will include shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in targeted sectors, helping more people learn new high-quality skills at work, fuelling innovation in businesses across the country and providing high-quality entry pathways for young people.