Report of the Head of Work and Skills.

This report explores the issues that affect a high proportion of the city’s working age population who have no or very low qualifications and outlines the emerging Adult Education and Skills Plan, which will aim to address the skills challenges faced in the city by residents, employers and the skills providers.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Work and Skills, which explored the issues that affected a high proportion of the City’s working age population who had no or very low qualifications and outlined the emerging Adult Education and

Skills Plan, which aimed to address the skills challenges faced in the City by residents, employers and the skills providers.

The Head of Work and Skills referred to the main points and themes in the report, which included:-

·                Skills Levels in Manchester at a ward level which had been compiled from the 2011 census as this had contained the most up to date information, highlighting that residents in Miles Platting and Newton Heath and Harpurhey wards of the city held relatively low qualifications;

·                The level of unemployment and economic inactivity in Manchester, which remained slightly higher than the national rate, although, to a degree, this could be attributed to Manchester’s large student population, which was 13.6% higher than the national figure;

·                Manchester’s Labour Market and Skills Demand which had seen rapid growth in the last twenty years and was set to continue.  However some sectors reported particular skills shortages, notably digital, whilst health and social care and construction were the industries which were most affected by having an ageing workforce and not being able to meet replacement demand; 

·                The findings of the Social Mobility Commission’s report, which looked at the skills gap in Britain and the role that adult education and training might be able to play in closing it;

·                The offer of a wide range of programmes for adult learners by the Manchester College although an initial look at all adult learners across their provision demonstrated a significant weighting towards Preparation for Work and Life programmes;

·                The learning offer from Manchester Adult Education Service; and

·                The creation of a Manchester Adult Skills and Education Plan which would initially outline the skills challenges and opportunities for Manchester residents, for businesses and for the system itself.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

·                There was concern around the issue of middle aged residents gaining meaningful employment;

·                There was a need to acknowledge the employment benefits that could be derived from those residents who had declared that English was not their main language but were able to speak English very well;

·                Members praised the work of Talk English in helping those with very limited English prior to undertaking an ESOL course;

·                There was a clear link between a lack of skills and family poverty;

·                How could the Council gather the destination outcome measures in a more joined up way in order to provide a more consistent picture of transitions from adult education into employment;

·                How was the Council going to enable the city’s 50+ population feel valued in terms of what they could offer as potential employees and support work to help more of this age group who were out of work to gain meaningful employment;

·                Were there any clear pathways for learners wishing to undertake level 2 qualifications, which was considered to be the level which was needed for individuals to sustain work;

·                Was there any insight into the number of people who worked in the city but lived out of the city compared to those who both worked and lived within the city; and

·                Was access to the labour market dependent on what ward people lived in as well as the qualifications they had;

The Deputy Leader advised that Government had announced that additional investment would be made for ESOL and Talk English as it had been recognised of the benefit these courses had had on individuals developing the necessary skills to gain employment.  The Head of Work and Skills noted the comments made around middle aged people of working age and commented that the Council had started to undertake some broader work around this, as it was recognised that this group of people were not benefiting from the economic growth of the city and were becoming excluded more than any other age group.

In terms of gathering destination outcome measures in a more joined up way, it was reported that at present, there was not a Greater Manchester (GM) system that could be used to collect this data in a cohesive fashion, but by collecting this information in a clear and consistent way, it could put pressure on the need for a GM system rather than 10 individual systems for collecting the same data.  The Head of MAES added that Manchester College and the Growth Company were involved in developing the Adults Skills Education Plan which would look at current provision and be more explicit as to what the pathways to different employment sectors were, this included how those residents aged over 50 could gain better or new skills to help them obtain new or better employment, through bespoke pathways.

The Deputy Leader noted the challenges faced by those agenda over 50 in gaining meaningful employment and suggested that this was an area that would be useful for Scrutiny to look at this in the next Municipal Year.  

The Head of Work and Skills advised that the data held on the number of people who worked in the city but lived out of the city compared to those who both worked and lived within the city was accurately measured but noted that the gap in earnings between these two groups was higher in Manchester than other core cities.  The Committee was also advised that from the age of the data available, it was not possible to determine whether there was a correlation between access to the labour market dependent on what ward people lived in as well as the qualifications they had.

Decision

The Committee:-

(1)          Endorses the emerging Manchester Adult Skills and Education Plan;

(2)          Suggests that the Committee receives further information on the following areas, at a suitable point in the next Municipal Year:-

·                     the work being undertaken to help support the 50-64 age group in the context of addressing low skills;

·                     the issue of employers and the underutilisation of employee’s skills.