Accelerate EAST

Accelerate EAST Harnessing East Anglia’s Skills and Talent for regional and national benefit Our ambition is simple – to make East Anglia the most innovative and successful region in the world. We already have world-leading clusters where innovation is driving explosive growth. Yet these sit side by side with areas of low social mobility and limited opportunity. Through a region-wide skills Pathway and Passport we will create a fairer society, build the highly skilled workforce need- ed for our businesses to flourish, and help drive economic growth across the country. 09 Norwich Peterborough 07 05 Cambridge Bury St Edmunds 10 01 03 02 02 01 Ipswich • 2 LEPs • 16 FE and Sixth Form Colleges • 5 Universities • 2.3 million people, 3.5% of the UK population FE Colleges 1. Cambridge Regional College 2. City College Norwich 3. Easton and Otley College 4. Great Yarmouth College 5. Huntingdon Regional College 6. Lowestoft College 7. Peterborough Regional College 8. Suffolk New College 05 9. College of West Anglia 10. West Suffolk College Sixth Form Colleges 1. East Norfolk Sixth Form College 2. Hills Road Sixth Form College 03 Norwich 3. Long Road Sixth Form College 4. Lowestoft Sixth Form College 02 05 04 Peterborough 5. Paston Sixth Form College 04 01 6. Suffolk One Sixth Form College Universities 1. University Cambridge 06 2. Anglia Ruskin 3. University of Suffolk 04 4. Norwich University of the Arts 5. University of East Anglia Cambridge Bury St Edmunds Ipswich 08 03 06 Our regional Our ambition economy East Anglia comprises the three counties of But our ambition goes beyond this. In these Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and challenging times, it is more critical than ever unitary Peterborough, a region which has a to ensure that all parts of our economy are distinct national identity and a globally signifi- firing on all cylinders. Inspired by the Indus- cant economic offer. The GVA of our regional trial Strategy, we want to make East Anglia economy was £66.3m in 2015, a figure that the most innovative and successful region in is forecast to grow by 22% over the next 10 the world. We will do this by harnessing the years. strengths of our high-tech clusters to stimu- late and drive growth across all our sectors, Our key sectors include: creating a region-wide powerhouse, whilst at the same time ensuring that we are a region • Agri-food: 98,000 people are employed that really does work for everyone within it. To in our regional agri-food sector (including do this, we need to identify and remove con- agri-tech), equating to a GVA of £4.3bn1 straints on growth on a whole-economy basis. • Digital: the digital and creative clusters around Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich employ 47,800 people, and have a GVA of £1,195M2 • Energy: our east coast is the centre of one of the world’s most productive energy in- dustries, employing 7,700 and generating a GVA per job of £129K3 • Life sciences and healthcare: within 20 miles of Cambridge alone, there are 430 companies in the sector, employing 13K people and with a turnover of £3.43bn4 Our growth projections are not aspirational or unrealistic. They are rooted in the strength and depth of our regional economy, and delivering them needs no intervention from Government. We are already a world-leading region for high-tech innovation and growth, and a mag- net for international talent and inward invest- ment. We are ideally placed to spearhead the country’s economic growth in the post-Brexit world. 1 Agriculture in the UK 2015, https://www.gov.uk/government/ statistics/agriculture-in-the-united-kingdom-2015 2 Tech Nation 2017, http://technation.techcityuk.com/ 3 www.eeegr.com 4 www.camclustermap.com Skills: a real brake on our economic growth & prosperity Given our strong upward growth forecasts, Many initiatives and activities already operate and our desire to contribute more to the in this space. However, the differing scale and country a whole, we need to ensure that our scope of these, and the sheer number of indi- innovation-based economy has the workforce vidual providers, means the skills landscape to sustain it for the long term. However, the is incredibly hard to navigate. This is as true companies and sectors that drive our regional for the rural teenager with no family history of economy are operating in an already-tight la- FE or HE as it is for the 50-year-old employee bour market. At the same time, we have some in a low-skilled job. It is also a landscape in of the most deprived wards in the country with flux, with the introduction of the Apprenticeship respect to education and skills, and five of Levy, plans for T-levels, the recent publication our local authority areas rank in the bottom 20 of the UK Digital Strategy, the East of England nationally in terms of social mobility. This repre- LGA Regional Strategy for Apprenticeships sents a huge amount of talent that is currently and the DWP Improving Lives: Helping Work- going to waste, for people of all ages, right less Families Green Paper, and the soon-to-be across our region. concluded post-16 Area Reviews and the Science and Innovation Audits. And herein lies However, it also represents a real opportunity our opportunity. to improve social mobility at the same time as unlocking further economic growth. In order to support individuals to make the most of their potential, and our companies to benefit as a result, we must: • raise aspiration and attainment at an individual level; • support innovation in our businesses; and • improve connectivity between people and opportunities, by removing both social and infrastructural barriers. Our strategy We represent a partnership of the business The result will be a sense of personal ambi- community and further and higher education tion and engagement in regional prosperity providers from across East Anglia. Inspired by and growth, giving everyone in our region the the ambition of Industrial Strategy, we will work means and motivation to benefit from well-paid together through a single delivery platform, and rewarding job opportunities. At the same Accelerate EAST (East Anglia Skills and time, our economy will benefit from a regional Talent), to deliver inclusive economic growth workforce whose levels of skill and ambition by re-shaping the complex and un-coordinated match the requirements of our businesses. We regional skills landscape. are focused on those things that will support and strengthen our region in the long term. We will operate as a regional partnership jointly co-ordinated by our two LEPs, albeit with our own leadership and a small secretariat. This will enable us to capitalise on the LEPs’ existing skills initiatives, links with industry and schools, and governance structures, and avoids creating yet another layer in the regional skills landscape. We can focus on using our convening power, experience and commitment to support activities that will deliver tangible benefits, in an agile and responsive way. Our core remit will be to: • facilitate co-operation and co-ordination of existing training providers • connect local employers with the most relevant training providers across our region • identify best practice, whatever its current scale, and support its expansion • co-ordinate our activities with organisations such as Jobcentre Plus, to ensure that skills and training provision integrates with support to raise people out of worklessness • commission additional provision where we identify gaps or opportunities, and • act as a single neutral point of contact for regional skills and education – for businesses, schools, training providers and Government. Delivering our strategy The central component in delivering our strategy We have also identified a number of additional will be the Accelerate EAST Pathway, a map activities that we would like to implement through of activities and opportunities within our region the Pathway and Passport, in order to significantly related to skills and employability, with clear and increase the scale and scope of our impact on easy-to-navigate entry points and progression individuals and the economy. We would welcome pathways. It will enable individuals to quickly and further discussion of these with the relevant Gov- easily identify what is available, how to get there, ernment departments. and what the onward routes might be, and will be used to frame education and employment-re- The apprenticeship levy: Having responsibility lated discussions with individuals, providers for un-utilised apprenticeship levy payments and businesses. Individual components on the across our region would enable us to support a Pathway will be badged with our logo, which will number of additional activities to ensure that all our raise visibility and become a mark of quality for businesses have the capacity to innovate, and that both individuals and employers. Discussions with their workforces have the necessary skillsets to providers and employers around how and where improve productivity and drive economic growth. to include individual components will also enable us to integrate and consolidate what is on offer, For example: and identify gaps in provision. • Skills Deals for SMEs: Building on a suc- In parallel, we will develop the Accelerate EAST cessful pilot undertaken by New Anglia LEP, Passport, an eligibility voucher for free or subsi- we want to support groups of SMEs to jointly dised access to training opportunities on the Path- commission bespoke training from FE, HE and way. Employers will play an integral part in identi- other providers to meet specific SME skills fying which opportunities should be supported in needs on a sectoral basis. this way, in order to meet their current and future skills requirements.

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