By Adam Powell, director of skills, West of England LEP
Businesses in our region continue to face the challenge of a skills gap, impacting on growth and stifling productivity and future innovation. However, how can we ensure that the skill demands of the business community can be met now and in the future? 
The most crucial component to improve this situation is to ensure that both business and education are aware of your skills needs. To share your business skills needs and guarantee they will have an impact on the future of your industry, complete the 10-minute 2015 business skills survey. The results of this survey will directly influence the West of England LEP skills priorities and how the LEP prioritises actions and engages colleges and training providers to benefit you – the local business community.
In addition to completing the survey, these five steps will ensure that your business has the skills it needs to keep up with demand:
1. Up skill your current staff
To meet the future skills needs of your business and improve the skills of your workforce, you don’t have to hire new talent. By analysing your current staff skill set you may discover that you have all the knowledge and expertise that you need, it just isn’t being utilised. Another option is to up-skill your staff. The majority of industries change quickly and regularly, and the skills of your workforce may now be out of date.
To search for courses, education and training providers in the West of England, use Skills Junction.
2. Include apprenticeships and traineeships in your recruitment strategy
Apprentices can reduce training and recruitment costs, increase productivity and enable you to develop and create a workforce with skills and knowledge specific to your business. There is a wealth of funding and support available to assist you with taking on an apprentice.
3. Develop partnerships with education
By developing partnerships with local education providers and facilitators such as the West of England LEP Business in Schools Network you can shape and influence your future workforce, starting right at the school level. There is a plethora of ways to engage with education, including mentoring programmes, careers events and student challenges.
4. Broaden your skills selection, don’t just hire graduates
By only hiring graduates or recruiting from within, you significantly limit the skills available to your business. There are people in the local community with relevant, transferrable skills that you may have overlooked in the past. With a little training these people can bring a new perspective and a breadth of experience to your business.
5. Keep your future workforce informed and inspired
If your future workforce doesn’t know about your industry, they won’t want to work for you. It is crucial that young people, parents and education are aware of the opportunities available and campaigns like the Rise of the Engineer is a successful example of this. Based around a series of six fact sheets, each focusing on a different engineering sub-sector, the Rise of the Engineer provides current industry statistics, information and case studies from the West of England.
These five steps are relevant for any industry and can be adapted for any business. It is crucial that you identify the future skills gaps for your business and work proactively to ensure that your business is skilled, motivated and prepared for growth.
To help reduce future skills gaps in the West of England and help shape the region’s skills strategy, take part in the 2015 West of England LEP Business Skills Survey.
