PAN1236 - Skills for the Future Study

The LLEP is one of 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) created by Government to determine local investment priorities and stimulate local economic growth. The LLEP was established in May 2011 and serves the City of Leicester and the County of Leicestershire.

The LLEP’s vision is to “create a vibrant, attractive and distinctive place with highly skilled people, making Leicester and Leicestershire the destination of choice for successful businesses.”

By 2020, the LLEP aims to:

• Create 45,000 new jobs.
• Lever £2.5 billion of private investment.
• Increase Gross Value Added (GVA) from £19 billion to £23 billion.

During 2016, the LLEP is intending to refresh its Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) to guide its future investment decisions through to the year 2020. The employment and skills component of the SEP was originally underpinned by a detailed Skills Needs assessment undertaken in 2013. However, due to recent changes in the local economy, the LLEP now wishes to update this assessment by securing comprehensive and reliable data on the changing patterns of employment within the LLEP area into the future. The LLEP also wishes to better understand employers’ perspectives about their future demand for skills, how the current supply of skills is able to meet this demand and how the current system can be improved.

A key issue in identifying the changing demand for skills into the future in Leicester and Leicestershire will be to map the current occupational pattern of the area and then plot the changes to this pattern that will happen into the future. The changing occupational pattern and the scale of annual openings will influence the scale and nature of the demand for qualifications and is an important element of skills supply.

In addition to the refresh of the LLEP SEP, the findings of the Skills for the Future study will also be used to inform the LLEP’s analysis of skills demand for the forthcoming Area Review of post-16 Education and Training Institutions, which is due to start in Leicester and Leicestershire in September 2016.