Employers and educators breaking down barriers to improving skills

A partnership which places businesses at the heart of Hull and East Yorkshire’s local skills system focused at its latest event on addressing the accessibility issues which present barriers for young people trying to get into training and work.

The HEY Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) brought together employers and training and education providers who are working to tackle exclusion arising from physical disability, special educational needs (SEN) and geographical isolation.

Beth Dennett, Community Investment Strategist, at Sewell Group said lack of employer engagement has been identified as a factor behind the lack of work experience places for SEN students.

Viki Foster, Careers Lead at Withernsea High School, said the clear message from the top of her organisation is that students should not miss out on opportunities because of their location.

Adam Rhodes, Head of Partnerships at Connexin Academy, underlined the importance of larger employers helping smaller firms to offer apprenticeship opportunities by transferring funds from the apprenticeship levy.

Phil Ascough, Chair of HEY LSIP, said: “Our job is to promote engagement and collaboration between employers and the training and education providers, and once again we saw that in abundance at our latest forum.

“Everything we are hearing indicates that employers, educators and trainers are making the most of our events on the day and by following up afterwards to generate new ideas and solutions.”

The HEY LSIP team is led by the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce and is one of 38 around the country. It has identified its five priority sectors as construction, engineering construction, manufacturing, agri-skills and health and social care and set up working groups for each one. HEY LSIP is also looking at the cross-cutting themes of digital and Net Zero.

The LSIP has also identified its key themes of technical skills, educational professionals, employability and behaviours, careers guidance and accessibility and organises quarterly forums to discuss the various issues around them.

The latest event at Connexin Live in Hull was hosted by Connexin Academy, which supports its own business and others in the digital sector by offering industry-specific training courses, government-funded skills bootcamps and job-specific apprenticeships.

Details of the next quarterly forum will be announced on https://www.heylsip.com/.