Page 52 - Neath Port Talbot Skills Report 2024

Public Sector
A skills strategy would be beneficial to NPT LA.
Understanding and placing positive interventions
into:
• Skill development
• Social and economic issues / barriers
• Recruitment, retention
• Skill gaps / labour market intelligence
• Future planning
• Ecosystems of cooperation / support / actions
(Industry, Education, Public Sector)
This would ensure that NPT are in a strong
position to ensure that the current skill gaps and
future skill requirements are met and will benefit
the local economy.
There are some key gaps that NPT should consider
when creating a skills strategy.
Industry Engagement.
Very few employers within NPT interact with the
RLSP. Local employer voices are critical to a
successful skills strategy, could more be done to
engage local employers with Education and Public
Sector?
Collaborations such as this do happen within the
Universities and the RLSP cluster groups, however
is there opportunity to ensure that NPT employers
are encouraged to interact more? Regular skills
workshops aimed at local SME’s could be a viable
option.
Data
Very little data is available for the following.
• Higher Education
Data is not available to the RLSP for course uptake
numbers and completions, making it difficult to
assess the validity and success of new initiatives.
• NEET
Better tracking / monitoring and understanding at
LA level is critical. LA level of regularly updated
data is not available currently
• Economically inactive
Better ways of classification would be beneficial.
e.g. Some long-term sick could potentially retrain
for an alternate role, Identify the inactive who want
to work and create pathways to roles they can do.
• Local employers
Their voice is critical to ensure robust actions are
taken.
Health & Social Care
With an ageing population in NPT, and high
levels of long-term sickness, increasing NEET
figures and high C02 emission levels health
could potentially have extra burden placed
upon it.
Recruitment to this sector is already the hardest
to achieve, many roles being advertised up to 6
times before being filled, jobs are 6% less than
pre pandemic levels yet job adverts are
increasing.
Many school leavers believe their future lies
within H&SC, yet it is still hard to recruit, how
can this appetite be harnessed from school
leavers to employment?
Health needs to form a large part of the skill
strategy, considering all levels of health
interventions coupled with local public health
and social concerns.
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