4.6.10 The City Council has a role in supporting apprenticeships not only by championing them with businesses but in its own workforce.
4.6.11 Apprenticeship programmes have been developed and delivered across a number of Directorates within the Council. Aimed broadly, but not exclusively, at young people aged 16-24, programmes have primarily targeted those who fall into the NEETs (not in education, employment or training) category, 30% of whom live in the areas of the highest unemployment in the city.
4.6.12 The majority of the City Council apprentices were managed via the People Resourcing Team. The City Council has financially supported the development and implementation of apprenticeships via provision of apprentice salary incentives to Directorates and individual mentors for all apprentices based in the Human Resources team.
4.6.13 In addition the People Resourcing Team has provided support, resource and expertise to a pre- apprenticeship training programme within the Housing and Constituencies Directorate, where 96
53 Birmingham Post – 17th November 2010
54 The National Skills Academy for Financial Services is an independent employer-led, charitable organisation which is a leading body for training and development in the financial services industry.
55 BTEC: Business & Technology Education Council (vocational awards) 56 Birmingham Post – 10th February 2011
young people worked towards an NVQ 1 qualification. A number of these also progressed to complete NVQ level 2 frameworks.57
4.6.14 From 2010 the People Resourcing Team developed the Internal Apprenticeship model, which took the opportunity to up-skill staff who were already employees of the City Council. 140 City Council employees58 are currently signed up to the Internal Apprenticeship Scheme and appropriate apprenticeship frameworks to develop their skills and knowledge, to complete a qualification and to consolidate their work experience.
4.6.15 “Increasing the number of apprenticeships by working with public, private and third sector organisations and linking these to priority groups of residents” has been agreed as a high priority in the City Council’s Employment and Skills Action Plan. The immediate action is to establish a cross-directorate City Council Apprenticeship Strategy Group to provide a co-ordinated response to maximise the number of available apprenticeships and to better inform National Apprenticeship Service activity. The main issue is to increase the number of apprenticeships per se not just those within the City Council, through the Procurement Policy for Jobs and Skills, better targeted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) etc, drawing on the Council’s responsibility for NAS provision amongst other things.59
4.7 Choosing a College or Provider
4.7.1 Business Link acknowledges that finding a suitable training provider can be challenging as there are thousands of individuals, private companies and public bodies offering services to businesses.60 The Business Link’s guide therefore serves as a gateway for businesses in finding the right provider and outlines the different types of provider available.
4.7.2 The SFA’s Framework for Excellence (FfE) website can assist learners and employers search, review and compare further education colleges and other organisations that receive Government funding to educate and train adults and young people over the age of 16.
4.7.3 The Framework for Excellence includes information about how successful organisations are at helping people achieve the qualifications they start; their customers views - learners and employers; and the percentage of learners and trainees who progress in learning or employment as a result of completing their course.
4.7.4 Although the Framework for Excellence is a step in the right direction we were concerned that not all individuals would be in a position to make an informed choice regarding the training they need and what provider they should use.
57 Briefing Note to Equalities and HR O&S Committee, March 2011
58 As of the 21st April 2011; evidence from People Resourcing team, April 2011 59 Written evidence from Planning and Regeneration, April 2011
Supporting the Recovery
4.8 Summary
4.8.1 Our findings indicate that lack of skills are a major weakness in Birmingham, both from the data and from concerns expressed by our witnesses, who all cited access to an appropriately skilled labour market as a key issue. As one witness told us:
The City’s skill levels have improved over the past years but it will require a significant shift in the rate of up-skilling to impact on the residents’
competitiveness in the local labour market.
4.8.2 Witnesses expressed particular concerns regarding lack of some skills, and wider concerns related to businesses not knowing which body was tasked with co-ordinating skills provision. Some saw a role for the Council in taking responsibility for articulating and co-ordinating skills activity.
4.8.3 There is no strategic planning body for skills nationally. The Government has freed colleges and other providers to respond to local demand. However, we were concerned that not all individuals would be in a position to make an informed choice as to which training and provider they should use.
4.8.4 We were informed that meeting businesses skills needs was a priority for the LEP but one that still needed some attention once the Board is established. We were concerned that a skills plan needed to be in place for September 2011 to articulate and co-ordinate businesses skills needs. To this end, we wrote to the Leader of the City Council during our evidence gathering, requesting this be a priority. The Leader raised this at the LEP Development Board meeting in February 2011. 4.8.5 The City Council can provide leadership not only as acting as ‘champion’ in terms of promoting
skills levels by the City Council’s procurement strategy, but by better aligning the employer engagement functions within the City Council, becoming better able to articulate the needs of businesses and the skills that they require, so that resources can be targeted at areas where there are real skills shortages.
4.8.6 We have concerns regarding WNF ceasing on the 31st March 2011 and the gap in funding until the Work Programme comes into operation in September 2011. We recognise that the SFA and Jobcentre Plus provision will be in place during April to August 2011; and further education colleges have funds in their 2010/11 adult responsive budgets that they can use to deliver to unemployed people and will be recruiting throughout this period to August. In addition, we were informed that during the period April to August 2011, the SFA will be utilising ESF funding and launching two new programmes to support the unemployed. However, there will be a five month funding gap for some third sector organisations with a proven track record in delivering outcomes.
5 Findings: Conditions for Growth
5.1 Introduction
5.1.1 During our evidence gathering, we spoke to five representatives of businesses located in Birmingham and received written evidence from two others. We asked them to tell us their thoughts on:
• What businesses believe are ideal conditions in which to start and expand a business and how the City Council can facilitate these conditions;
• What businesses want from the City Council in terms of services.
5.1.2 In addition to access to a skilled labour market, discussed in the previous chapter, the responses broadly fell within the following categories:
• A collaborative and supportive environment that enables business to grow, including access to business support;
• High quality infrastructure that enables business to grow;
• Access to good housing, cultural activities etc that mean a good quality of life for employees; • A positive story to tell about Birmingham as a place to do business;
• Ability to work with the City Council.
5.1.3 The last of these will be dealt with in the next chapter, as part of the discussion on the role of the City Council. The remaining issues are explored in this chapter. Each section deals with an issue, presenting the business witnesses’ views, then the response we received from relevant Council officers or partners. Our comments and conclusions are then set out in the final Summary section.