Page 9 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan

Opportunities and Provision
Employers highlighted within the cluster groups that they would like Apprenticeships to better reflect their needs.
10. Improve employer engagement in the development of Apprenticeship frameworks, including for higher and degree level programmes through greater direct employer input and flexibility.
Both providers and employers highlighted the difficulty of developing new provision in some geographic areas.
11. Additional assistance needs to be provided to facilitate new provision in geographic areas where currently the required resources are not available, this includes the required equipment and teaching resources to develop the desired activity.
Some employers expressed concern that learners and in turn local would be negatively impacted if individuals were not able to study some activity in England due to funding or differences in qualifications.
12. A ‘learner first’ approach needs to be adopted in relation to students who choose to study outside of Wales with a particular focus on those who live near the border, or where provision is not available more locally.
Providers and employers expressed concerns that the data (relating to the curriculum offer) provided for analysis was not appropriate to conduct a comprehensive analysis. Particular reference was made to the aggregated nature of the data and the lack of information provided for HE, school level provision, A-level provision and adult learning.
13. Data for analysis needs to be improved to improve business confidence and understanding of provision.
Evidence indicates that there are gender disparities with regard to employment in sectors aligned to STEM. Furthermore, the same evidence shows that levels of employment within those sectors generally is decreasing.
14. Increase promotion of STEM related subjects and careers to learners across all age group.
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Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales Executive Summary