The largest review of skills in Coventry and Warwickshire has been launched by the Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP).
The Skills Board of the CWLEP – a private sector led partnership designed to drive forward the local economy – has spent three months drawing up a skills strategy.
Education and training professionals, as well as businesses, have now been invited to the launch of a consultation exercise to review the strategy.
Mariane Cavalli, the principal of Warwickshire College and chair of the Skills Board of the LEP, said the exercise was the largest ever review of skills in the Coventry and Warwickshire area.
“The strategy has been draw up to promote the development of a highly-skilled workforce with the attitudes and ambitions needed to gain and keep a satisfying job in an increasingly competitive world and to ensure the development of skills is in line with our economic priorities,” she said.
“It covers all aspects of the education and training system – the initial education of young people, continual training and development once they have left school or college, performance improvement for people in work and the retraining of those not in work to improve their employability and help meet skills shortages.
“We have identified three strategic priorities for the area – using skills to drive growth and create jobs, developing skills to tackle unemployment and ensuring a better fit between education and employment.
“The Skills Board, and the LEP as a whole, is very aware that a great deal of important and exciting work on skills is already being undertaken by
employers, local authorities and education and training providers.
“Our aim is not to replace what is going on but to support, to stimulate and to help fill gaps.”
The Skills Board is made up of local representatives from education and skills across the Coventry and Warwickshire area.
Cavalli added: “We would like all those who are concerned with skills to review the strategy, and attend the event. Their feedback is essential.”
The event is being held at the Coventry University Faculty of Engineering and Computing on Wednesday, November 6, at 4.45pm.