South Yorkshire business leaders call for transformation of skills sector

Business leaders based in South Yorkshire are uniting today in a plea for the new Mayor to urgently tackle skills shortages holding the region back. 

Three Chambers of Commerce, in Sheffield, Barnsley & Rotherham and Doncaster, will make the call ahead of a Mayoral Hustings event taking place in Doncaster. 

The Chambers have jointly produced a Skills Manifesto, outlining acute skills shortages affecting businesses.

Fragmented government funding is also said to have led to too many skills providers working at cross purposes, according to the business leaders. 

40 practical recommendations have been made in the manifesto to help to produce a more agile and responsive skills system, driving growth, productivity and wages. 

The Chambers are calling for the new Mayor to develop a new Skills Strategy for the region within 100 days of taking office and to lobby the government for further devolution powers. 

Plans for an Apprenticeship Hub service have been proposed too, linking people to opportunities and publicising successes. 

Businesses across the country have also been called upon to get involved in the campaign. 

‘Employers have told us they want to get involved in developing curriculums, programmes, and qualifications but there’s a gap in what they say and how involved they are. This needs to change. There needs to be a better and responsive digital platform connecting people, business needs, training, and opportunities,’ said Andrew Denniff, Chief Executive of Barnsley & Rotherham Chamber. 

‘If the share of South Yorkshire’s population with higher-level qualifications matched England’s, an extra 49,000 people would be qualified to NVQ level 4 or above in our region.’

The request comes after a successful pilot over the past year as part of the Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIP) on behalf of the Department for Education. 

‘Workplace skills is the single biggest challenge facing South Yorkshire’s economy and residents,’ said Chief Executive of Doncaster Chamber, Dan Fell. ‘Skills drive productivity and wages and the average output of workers in South Yorkshire is around 20% lower than for the UK – a gap that hasn’t narrowed in nearly 20 years.

‘A growing number of policy levers to affect the changes required are held by the Mayor. Some are at national level, but we have demonstrated during the pilot phase that when businesses, providers and industry bodies work collaboratively we can get to the heart of issues which are holding our region back from achieving its full potential.’

Photo by Benjamin Elliott