Anticipating labour market developments and meeting the workforce needs of regional projects
Information about the school
Skills Academy Wales was established as a work-based learning partnership in 2009. Led by NPTC Group of Colleges, five sub-contractor partners work with an additional nine sub-contractor organisations to cater for around 2,800 apprenticeship learners in Wales. The partnership operates throughout south-east, south-west and mid Wales and has small provision in north Wales. It works in partnership with more than 1,000 employers including anchor companies, multi-nationals, SMEs and micro businesses.
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
Skills Academy Wales’s Executive Board has a clear vision for the partnership and sets the strategic direction for its work-based learning provision, taking very good account of local, regional and national priorities. It has been particularly effective in building and shifting capacity within the partnership to initiate and respond to the current and future training needs of businesses within the large geographical area it serves.
Senior leaders within Skills Academy Wales regularly engage with regionally important projects, including those within the Cardiff Capital Region, Mid Wales Growth and Swansea Bay City Deals, contributing to plans relating to current and future workforce development requirements.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
A very strong feature of Skills Academy Wales is its proactive engagement with regional projects to anticipate and support development and regeneration. It uses labour market intelligence well to plan and shape its provision to meet the workforce needs of local businesses and proposed developments. The partnership works very effectively with a wide range of employers. It successfully establishes and maintains relationships with anchor companies and large businesses, whilst also catering to the needs of the substantial number of SMEs and micro-organisations that are a core feature of the Welsh economy. This proactive engagement is helping to mitigate the significant workforce pressures that have been building across several key sectors such as social care, childcare, construction, engineering, logistics and rail.
Skills Academy Wales takes very good account of economic and social priorities and has established effective collaborative relationships with key stakeholders, including both local and regional forums, to identify and respond to current and future skills needs. For example, the partnership’s lead provider, NPTC Group of Colleges, initiated a meeting with Swansea Bay University Health Board to discuss their strategic approach to workforce development and to explore how the partnership could help support them to tackle skills shortages. As a result, it was agreed that an apprenticeship academy would be established to promote and facilitate apprenticeship provision across the health board. It would aim to recruit, train and upskill new or existing staff in both clinical and non-clinical roles. NPTC Group of Colleges provided expertise and financial investment to support the set-up of the apprenticeship academy. Since its establishment, the academy has trained over 500 NHS apprentices, making a key contribution to the health board’s response to their urgent recruitment and training needs. This innovative model has since been replicated by other health boards across Wales.
Other founding partners of Skills Academy Wales also work proactively in this way. Coleg y Cymoedd engaged with Transport for Wales to review their workforce development needs and explore how existing and future apprenticeship provision could support their recruitment challenges and organisational growth. These initial discussions led to the formation of a working group and development plan to address Transport for Wales’s recruitment and workforce development needs. Subsequently, Coleg y Cymoedd took the lead in the development of a Level 3 Train Driver apprenticeship framework. This was achieved in collaboration with key stakeholders, including, industry representatives, awarding body organisations, relevant unions and the Welsh Government. The apprenticeship programme was successfully set-up in a relatively short timeframe and since its launch in 2019, has significantly contributed towards meeting the need for qualified train drivers by training over 300 apprentices.
To further respond to the workforce needs of the rail industry, Coleg y Cymoedd has worked in collaboration with the University of South Wales to develop a Level 6 degree apprenticeship programme in rail engineering. This provision is closely aligned to the establishment of the Global Centre of Rail Excellence to be based in the Neath Valley.
This successful model of collaboration between Skills Academy Wales and industry, has also been used effectively to respond to the recruitment and skills needs in other key priority areas. For example, effective strategic arrangements were established with a wide range of employers within the transportation and logistics sector, including the Freight Transport Association, Road Haulage Association and the National Logistics Academy. The partnership uses these relationships well to inform and deliver additional apprenticeship training in response to the significant shortage of LGV Drivers that continues to impact the sector.
Going forward, the partner providers that constitute Skills Academy Wales continue to engage effectively with key stakeholders and strategic partnerships to anticipate and address future workforce development needs. For example, one partner is currently working with the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal and the FE colleges based in south-east Wales to support the planned transformation of the Aberthaw Power Station. The aim is to develop a workforce that can produce important and innovative sustainable and green energy solutions.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
The strong collaborative practice between Skills Academy Wales and external stakeholders has resulted in a range of apprenticeship provision that is well placed to meet the needs of learners, specific employers and the wider labour market. Providers within the partnership have successfully engaged with, and initiated, work to develop important provision that prepares and develops learners’ skills to help them to sustain employment and contribute to economic growth. The work of the provider has helped existing employees and new apprenticeship learners to successfully develop the knowledge, skills and experience that are currently in-demand, and also those that are anticipated to be in-demand in the near future. This helps to support the Welsh economy in line with the ambition of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015.
How have you shared your good practice?
Good practice is routinely shared within the SAW partnership and celebrated at Awards Evenings and other education and training networking events.