Last week, we launched the first of our activities leading up to the development of the first Greater Manchester Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP).
The Chamber is leading this work, having been designated and funded by the Department for Education to deliver the plan in Spring 2023 and monitor its success up to April 2025.
You will have received at least one email outlining what we are doing and the important part you can play in this as well as a link to the first survey that we are running as part of the GM LSIP.
If you did get this and your first reaction was 鈥淣ot another skills survey鈥� and hit delete, then I encourage you to read on!
Yes, it is another skills survey but this one is very different from any that have gone before. It may look the same on the surface, the questions look and sound familiar, but that鈥檚 where the similarities end. Because with surveys, it's not just the asking of the question that is the main activity, but it鈥檚 what we do with the results that matters 鈥� and this time, we mean business.
If the LSIP is to work, it has to truly represent the views, experience and problems that employers are facing when it comes to recruiting staff, as well as upskilling their existing workforce. We hear a range of issues and know that things need to be better. The GM LSIP is the best way yet that these issues can be resolved. By working with both employers and providers we can, with the use of data, intelligence and evidence, iron out the problems, identify the areas that need to be improved, plan ahead for the future and put right some of the problems created by previous skills initiatives.
That is the job that we have to do as the lead body developing and delivering the LSIP.
But we can't do that alone - we need your input.
We will keep you up to date with what we are doing and there will be more opportunities to get involved coming up, so please look out for these in the future.
And yes, there will be other surveys, but please take it from me they will all be for a reason and when we get the plan right, we will all benefit. I think that鈥檚 worth 5 minutes of anybody鈥檚 time.
To contact the Chamber's GM LSIP team, email: gmlsip@gmchamber.co.uk听