The Local Skills Report aims to assess the current state of the West Midlands Education and Skills system, and how well the supply of skills meets demand within the region.
It is produced annually for the Department for Education, meeting a requirement for all Local Enterprise Partnerships and Mayoral Combined Authorities to produce a skills report for the Department for Education's Skills Advisory Panel.
The report is a policy document which provides a narrative of progress and challenges in delivering education and skills, considers the impact of the pandemic and other recent economic trends, and considers how devolved powers such as the Adult Education Budget may be deployed to improve outcomes.
WMREDI
Research Theme 1
Skills and Labour Markets
The Evidence Base supports this by analysing supply, demand, and local economic context in detail. Each stage of the education system, from pre-school to postgraduate, is assessed in terms of:
- How well provision reaches those who are disadvantaged
- How well supply meets demand, both in general educational levels and specific skills
- The geographical distribution of provision, and inter-region comparisons
- Long term demographic and economic trends that pertain to skills
The Evidence Base is written by Alex Smith (WMCA/WMREDI) to support the WMCA Skills & Productivity team in producing the narrative Local Skills Report.
Colleagues across WMREDI and the Black Country Consortium have also previously contributed ideas and analyses to the report.
Local Skills Report Supporting Evidence (Leads to the Local Skills Report page on the WMCA website)
Produced by Professor Anne Green with contributions from Alex Smith, May 2022
Project lead contact details:
Alex Smith, Project Lead, is leaving CityREDI as of the 17th of March.
Mike Smith produces the narrative report and is the best point of contact until a replacement takes over the production of the Evidence Base.