Workforce Coordination Project looks to address future skills needs
A recent Marine Workforce Coordination Project funded by SEEDA and led by Marine South East through its Workforce Development Group has come up with a number of recommendations to help ensure that the future marine workforce will have the right mix of competencies required by the marine sector in the South East region.
Interviews and visits were held with around 200 marine employers, public agencies, training providers and key stakeholders (both within and outside the region), and a number of reports and studies written over the past ten years were evaluated.
The report noted that a wide range of agencies offer help and support to the marine industry but that there is no coordinated, strategic approach that fully understands the dynamic needs of small to medium sized marine businesses.
A major expectation of the project was to develop and validate a strategy that could be used to ensure the future workforce is fit for purpose in providing the mix of competencies required by the marine industries across the South East. This has proved, as was expected, a major challenge and has led to the conclusion that due to the diversity and highly competitive nature of the industry one single approach is unlikely to be workable. A more flexible process based on responsiveness to the size of the business taking into account the expertise within the business is suggested.
The report explored a range of tasks, giving recommendations for each:
- Develop a methodology for creating a workforce growth profile
- Review the recommendations within the Marine Sector Skills Agreement for strategic workforce planning
- Understand current marine FE/HE education and training provision
- Support the Learning and Skills Council/Marine South East to understand/appreciate demand/supply profile in the sector, and consider impacts of changes to LSCs
- Ensure all providers are aware of the economic significance of the sector
- A mapping exercise suggesting uneven coverage of the range of competencies needed
- Work with SEMTA/Train to Gain to ensure the engineering sector compact agreement responds to the needs of the marine sector
For further information contact David Rea by emailing david@marinesoutheast.co.uk
or download a copy of the Executive Summary in the Downloads/Research Report section of this website
Send this story to a colleague
