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South West RDA invests £1.7m to retain the region's talent
03 July 2009
The South West RDA has approved a £1.7m investment to ensure
highly skilled experts from a number of industries are not lost due
to the recession. The investment will match talent to opportunity
for the aerospace, advanced engineering and creative/digital
industries. The Talent Retention programme will start in
August.
The project is a specialist sector based redeployment service.
It will increase the chances of highly skilled and talented people,
who may be at risk of redundancy, finding alternative work or
training. At the same time it will help to retain their skills and
reduce the possibility of the region losing these key
individuals.
This is filling a gap in the market, providing a tailored
service, for specific industries that are of great economic
importance to the South West. Approximately £76m is lost to the
South West economy every year due to hard-to-fill vacancies. The
National Business Trend Survey May 2009 from EEF, The Manufacturers
Organisation, shows 55% of manufacturers were concerned about their
ability to attract and retain skilled employees in preparation for
the upturn.
The project seeks to pool talent in order to redeploy and retain
skills and jobs across key economic sectors. It is a model for
skills, talent and intellectual property retention within the South
West. This will be achieved by engaging with employers, employees
and other stakeholders. Support will be directed at the
pre-redundancy stages of redeployment, compared to traditional
redundancy support which can only be provided once redundancy is
imminent, or has taken place.
Initially the project will run as two pilots, covering:
1. Advanced Engineering (aerospace and defence, automotive,
machine tools, medical, marine and, original equipment manufacture)
- delivered through the Engineering Employers Federation;
2. Creative and Digital Media (independent production, design
and digital agencies and freelancers) - delivered through Bristol
Media.
There will be three principal elements of activity:
The identification of opportunities for talented individuals
within the two sectors e.g. Jobs, business start up, teaching for
those with appropriate Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
(STEM) related experience, skills and qualifications and,
research;
Redeployment and signposting services for individuals at risk
of redundancy and,
A web based system designed to provide a sector focused "rapid
match" service between organisations with skills shortages and
those with talent surpluses.
Both pilots seek to reduce the impact of the downturn and
associated job losses and, strengthen the business offer of the
region. They will also help businesses to respond to new
opportunities during and after the recession. Whilst aimed at
responding to the immediate crisis, it will also have a use as the
recovery takes hold.
The Talent Retention Programme is scheduled to run until June
2012 and will support those at risk of redundancy within the
targeted sectors who have critical sector specific skills and are
operating at Level 3 or above (Advanced Apprenticeship, A Level or
NVQ Level 3).
If the region fails to act swiftly, key areas of work or
knowledge within the two specified sectors could be lost from the
region and the sector, in many cases for good, hampering longer
term economic recovery.
Industry figures show that 70% of individuals leaving the
aerospace industry through redundancy following the events of 9/11
not only left their employer, but left the sector.
Suzanne Bond, the South West RDA's Executive Director, People
and Skills, said: "This is a win-win-win situation for: the
advanced engineering and creative/digital industries; for the South
West; and for highly skilled people across the region. The scheme
will minimise the risk of experts being lost from the industries
and from the region.
"It will also help talented people who are at risk of
redundancy, matching them to the opportunities that are available.
This is exactly what the economy needs to deal with the recession
and to take full advantage of the recovery once it comes."
"I am confident that we now have a robust and effective
mechanism at our disposal which will be of great value in our
preparation for economic recovery in the South West".
Terry Slater, Director and Chief Executive of EEF, The
Manufacturers Organisation said: "Such a service is vital to the
future success of manufacturing in the South West. By retaining the
hard won skills that currently exist, its chances of being able to
confidently respond to the economic upturn when it comes are
greatly enhanced.
"To do nothing and allow those skills to leave the industry will
create a workforce gap, the filling of which could take many years,
the resulting blow being one from which many manufacturers in the
south west may never recover"
Paul Appleby, Chairman of Bristol Media said: "Bristol Media CIC
is delighted to be the key industry partner for the Creative
Industries element of the South West RDA's Talent Retention
Programme. Not only does it provide top-level backing for one of
the key strategic aims of Bristol Media, it also recognizes the
importance of the creative industries in the business mix of both
Bristol and the whole South West.
"It's an exciting challenge, and comes as Bristol Media is
aiming to increase its offer to the creative industry community,
and formalize its position through a membership scheme. Projects
like this provide us with the sustainability we need to grow, and
thus provide the connections and ideas that stimulate the
community."
Contact: Billy McKenna, 01392 229 567
Notes to editors:
1 The South West RDA leads the development of a sustainable
economy, investing to unlock the region's business potential. It is
helping companies respond to the economic crisis and charts a
course for recovery. The RDA is developing or expanding initiatives
which include: establishing a Business Loan Fund; coordinating the
response to large companies in difficulty; preparing for economic
recovery. More information can be found at www.southwestrda.org.uk.
2. Advanced Engineering: SEMTA (Sector Skills Council for
Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies) states that
:
- The region is home to a significant proportion of the National
Advanced Engineering talent 8% of employment and 9% of engineering
establishments are situated in the SW; a workforce of 130,000
people (Semta)
- 42% of the workforce is aged 45 to 64 compared with 40% in all
sectors in the south west and 38% nationally.(Semta)
- Only 8% are aged between 16 and 24 compared with 14% for all
SW sectors.(Semta)
- Pre-recession employment projections between 2005 and 2014 see
a loss of 12,000 jobs and an average growth rate of -1% (Semta)
- Replacement demand between 2005 and 2014 equates to 34,000
employees (3,800 per year) (Semta)
- Estimated recruitment requirements between 2005 and 2014 are
8,000 Level 3, 7,000 level 4 and 2,000 Level 5 or above (Semta)
- Advanced engineering (including Aerospace) accounts for nearly
12% of total GVA in the South West (£2.127bn in 2006) - Aerospace
accounted for £712m (Regional Accounts)
- The average GVA per engineering employee is £50,000 (2005
figures) compared with £33,000 for all sectors. (Semta)
- Hard to fill vacancies cost the SW economy £76m in lost GVA
and 68% of engineering establishments have hard to fill vacancies.
(Semta)
3. Creative and digital media (taken from 2006 Regional Accounts
and 'SW Creative Choices' Impact and footprint of the Creative and
Cultural sector, from the Creative and Cultural Sector Skills
Council website)
- 62,000 people are employed in the Creative, cultural and
digital media sector, 35% of these are within design and visual
arts. (Regional Accounts)
- 46 % of the workforce is under the age of 40 (SW Creative
Choices)
- 14% between 25 and 29 (SW Creative Choices)
- 8% are aged between 16 and 24.(SW Creative Choices)
- 72% of the workforce are qualified at Level 3 or above (46%
are above Level 4) (SW Creative Choices)
- Creative Industries sector accounts for £2.374bn of regional
GVA (2006 Regional Accounts) accounting for 5.8% of UK GVA for the
sector
- An average GVA per employee of £34,740 (May 2006 RDA Economic
Review)
- Hard to fill vacancies cost the SW economy £76m in lost GVA
and 68% of engineering establishments have hard to fill
vacancies.
- 28% growth is expected across the region between 2007 and
2017(Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics, Projections of
Employment Change, 2008)