The new government is making many new changes. With the breakup of the Regional Development Agencies confirmed, there is now a great opportunity to streamline and simplify the skills brokerage system and realign it for a more effective sectorial approach, rather than the generic one in place.
This means employers will only need to engage with one broker or point of contact, making it much easier, clearer and more efficient for employers.
We work closely with employers and, in the strategic spending review due out in the autumn, each Sector Skills Council (SSC) should remain in place, responsible for their industries, and be given the freedom to build on their current achievements.
We'll get more employer buy-in if we develop creative sector-specific solutions that meet sector-specific priorities, as demonstrated by many of the programmes SSCs have led over the last few years. This can only be achieved through a sectorial approach and not, as has been suggested, by regionalising the councils or replacing them with a public sector led skills system.
SSCs provide a cost-effective and proven route to deliver innovative, problem-solving, and transformational skills solutions that enhance UK competitiveness. And, given greater responsibilities, we can improve this even further.
However, at the moment there is a lot of overlapping and unnecessary roles in the skills system that need reviewing, which will mean a much simpler and coherent SSC network. So far there's been no direct indication of how the ongoing cuts and deficit reductions will affect the skills system, but the new skills strategy will need to inspire public and private organisations and individuals to engage in partnership and invest in improving skills.
In order to accurately represent the needs of employers, the skills system should get as close as possible to employers and SSCs are the route to do this. Solutions must also challenge and involve employers directly.
This is a once in a generation opportunity to change the skills system making it more flexible and innovative and able to make rapid changes.
As well as being the voice of employers on skills, SSCs are the only vehicle for delivering sectoral support to business. This helps reduce confusion among businesses by knowing clearly who to turn to for help, and increases effectiveness for employers when they only have one point of contact.
As part of this adjustment, SSCs should be challenged to deliver greater levels of employer co-investment into sectoral provision that genuinely meets industry needs, and be measured on their impact on their sectors.
An effectively resourced SSC network, supported by a flexible and simplified skills system, can help to inspire and drive employer ambition and co-investment, develop solutions to meeting skill needs, build quality partnerships with quality training providers, measure the impact of public money spent on skills development and reduce bureaucracy while increasing performance and accountability.
But to achieve this the government needs to fully endorse SSCs as the main conduit for the "employer voice" in the skills system and be allowed to develop flexible solutions that meet the needs of our particular sectors. We also have to have the recognition that a non-uniform approach is often the most effective.
Through the work of SSCs we have unprecedented engagement with employers and we want the government to use our access to industry to work with employers so that we don't have a public sector-led skills system. The opportunity to work with employers through SSCs has never been exploited fully, yet it represents a unique way of uniting employers on wider issues, as well as skills, and offers the services of employers in the sector to help drive an exciting future.
What the industries need is support and encouragement that they are considered, that there is benefit in working together, and that they can influence change.
Terry Watts is the chief executive of Proskills, the sector skills council for the process and manufacturing sector
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