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Delivering the skills strategy of the last ten years

By Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership

From the start, we had the bold ambition at the North East LEP to become a national exemplar for skills, social mobility and inclusivity. It’s why we’ve consistently championed an ‘each and every’ approach which has been at the heart of the Strategic Economic Plan, ensuring no one is left behind. It’s been quite a journey. 

When I first joined the North East LEP, the approach to skills and inclusion was very theoretical. One of my first jobs was to humanise the economic data and make it all about people and how we could get systems moving and stop those needing extra help from falling through the cracks. We needed something to be delivered through our partners to fix the systemic issues holding people back. 

Our initial focus was on older workers, how to support people back into work, how to deliver digital inclusion, how to retain graduates within the region, how to become attractive to new investment in the region and how to have the right pipeline and skilled workforce for businesses to grow and thrive.

These were big challenges and we had to address them all. 

Ten years is a long time for economic development and regional skills policy. Since 2014, we’ve seen many leaders come and go. Each new prime minister and secretary of state brought different policies and priorities, which meant working closely with the Department of Education (DfE) to navigate each change. 

Establishing good working relationships with the DfE, other government departments, and partners within the North East was a priority from the start. We knew that to have a serious impact, we’d need a depth of trust enabling mutual challenges regarding how money should be spent. 

We developed excellent relationships with further education colleges, schools, universities and independent training providers and it made a difference. People knew we were there to listen and were striving to do the right thing with the budgets, constraints and influence that we had. Similarly, we welcomed their honesty, commitment and equal ambition to deliver everything to the highest standards. 

In time, our consistent approach to Skills partnership working and delivery led to the North East being chosen to pilot various initiatives, the most well-known being the Career Benchmarks, later rolled out more widely by the Gatsby Foundation, which initiated and funded the scheme. The success of this led to the government launching new statutory guidance for schools on how to deliver careers education with the Gatsby Career Benchmarks at the heart. This legacy is one the team and I are very proud of. 

Having a genuinely strategic long-term plan and sticking to it meant we weren’t blown about too much by political headwinds. Being led by the evidence helped to steady the ship through the turbulence of the pandemic, the UK’s exit from the EU, and challenges facing the education landscape post-COVID. Having clear goals with a clear message was really helpful to everyone involved with strategy, policy, and delivery. 

A hugely positive development as we move forward is that we will have scope and remit that we haven’t had to date. 

You cannot disconnect things like employment and inclusion from health, housing and transport. While before we could go so far in economic development terms, through the new North East Combined Authority, we’ll be able to go much further and connect all these things up. 

These significant step changes as we merge into the new combined authority and get more funding and powers are welcomed here and by our partners. I can’t wait to be part of the team to make this happen. 

Home / North East Skills Strategy

Expanding the reach of the North East Skills Strategy

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is expanding its Skills team to increase the reach of its work with schools, colleges and education providers across the North East. Michelle Rainbow, the North East LEP’s Skills Director, explains what’s in store.

2018 was an incredibly busy year for our Skills team here at the North East LEP. We spent the year working on both a regional and a national basis, building the foundations of our Skills strategy and working towards the interim aims laid out in the region’s Strategic Economic Plan (SEP).

One of these aims was to put in place our Fuller Working Lives programme, working with employers to boost their numbers of older workers and to make sure that those in our workforce who are older are supported, whether they want to pursue a new direction or continue in their career.

We aimed to roll out the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks, which form a clearly defined framework for good careers guidance, to every secondary school in the North East and we wanted to partner every secondary school with an Enterprise Adviser – a business leader who volunteers their expertise to support schools and colleges in shaping the delivery of careers education.

Another major aim was to begin the ground-breaking Education Challenge programme, including working with three North East schools to pilot a new, project-based model of learning which places employer engagement at the heart of the curriculum.

In the area of technical education, we aimed to work with providers to develop world class technical education and apprenticeships to match the requirements of our growing and emerging sectors.

I’m proud to say that we achieved all of these aims and more. And to help us work with even more schools, colleges and education providers in 2019, we have recently welcomed seven new people to the North East LEP Skills team. It’s my hope that by mid-2019 we will have recruited another 10 members of the team to help deliver our ambitious plans for this year.

It’s a period of rapid expansion, which will enable us to have a wide scale regional impact. By the end of 2019 we will be working with every secondary school in the North East and we will be increasing the scope of our work with primary schools, helping to raise children’s aspirations from a young age.

We’re building on our engagement with the Further Education, Higher Education and Technical Education sectors as well, supporting organisations in responding to changes in policy and working closely with partners like the CBI and North East Chamber of Commerce.

Over the past three years we’ve put foundations in place that form the basis of a robust Skills strategy for the North East. We’ve carried out pilot projects and learnt from all the work that has been carried out so far.

Now we’re building on what we’ve learnt and we are actively pursuing opportunities to expand our reach across all our programmes so that we can support even more schools, colleges, employers and educational organisations.

Our long term vision for the North East is that it is a place where individuals, regardless of age or employment status, have a good understanding of the employment opportunities available in the North East and the pathways to access them. We want employers to have strong links with education and training providers and we aim to continue working with partners to highlight the importance of skills in improving productivity and living standards for everyone in the North East.

Find out more about the North East LEP Skills strategy.