Skills shortage crisis looming as Staffordshire colleges and sixth forms told students not making the grade

The Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership has raised concerns that a shortage in skills will impact the county's economy.

In its report, the LEP said it was receiving reports from 'many local businesses' about a lack of gaps and a shortage of prospective employees.

It has called on the county to 'develop higher level skills and at a faster rate'.

The report, which is due to be discussed at a County Council Corporate Review Committee next week, says that the LEP expects 29,700 net new jobs and opportunities to arise due to labour turnover per annum until 2020.

Of these 41 per cent will require skills levels at level 2 or below, 20 per cent at level 3 and 39 per cent at levels 4/+.

But it highlighted the fact that supply was not currently meeting demand for levels 3 and 4+, with too many low-skilled workers.

It raised particular concerns about the further education sector not operating at a high enough level and businesses not working closely enough with schools, colleges, universities and other providers.

The report said: "The LEP concludes that there are unmet skills needs within the system.

"It is essential that both businesses and providers take responsibility for this and work closely together to close these gaps and develop a clear and consistent offer to employers and to ensure we take advantage of the opportunity of the apprenticeship levy introduction to grow apprenticeships.

"We expect to see improvements in quality across all sectors to provide the population with an economic advantage and to support the growth of a higher value economy in the area."

The County Council insisted that it had created the 'conditions for businesses to thrive' in the county but that the post-16 review would provide an opportunity for better alignment with businesses.

Councillor Ben Adams, the cabinet member for learning and skills, said: "In Staffordshire we have created the conditions for businesses to thrive and prosper and we have seen tremendous growth in the number of apprenticeships across the county and a rapid improvement in school performance as judged by Ofsted but it is essential that post-16 education and training providers continue to align themselves to the needs of industry, understanding where there are skills shortages and providing the right training – including up to a higher level than at present - to fill the gaps.

"The current Post-16 review by the national Further Education Commissioner is a significant opportunity to make further progress towards this aim, so students in Staffordshire who want higher level apprenticeships, who want to take advantage of the skilled jobs being created on their doorstep in engineering, design, science and technology can learn the necessary skills."