Great Yarmouth Skills and Employability Strategy 2024-2029

Strategic Priority 1: nurturing local aspiration and ambition; fostering a learning and development culture within our communities and workplaces that raises aspirations and enables our residents to reach their full potential

• breaking cycles of unemployment and low-skilled jobs by demonstrating that entering into work is a stepping stone to improved earning potential and opportunity for residents and their families
• re-enforcing the value of paid employment, recognising that a 'one size fits all' approach does not work and that work experience and support need to be meaningful and impactful
• working together to change the narrative; some residents are discouraged from work and gaining new skills because the short-term costs for them outweigh the financial benefits
• influencing perceptions; parents and schools have a key role in inspiring our children and young people and their relationship to education and skills - and linking this with rewarding employment, as well as improving school attendance rates and fostering young people's desire to learn
• extending this to workplaces, with employers recognising the value of developing their employees' skills, resulting in a culture of learning and development

Strategic Priority 2: ensuring that our skills and employability system is fit for purpose; working with our employers to ensure that the local skills system meets the needs of our residents and employers, is innovative and produces the right mix of skills and qualifications for the Borough's longer-term economic growth and resilience 

• ensuring that the skills and qualifications provided in the Borough match the current and future skills needs of local employers, recognising that local schools, colleges and skills providers cannot provide all the skills and qualifications required - especially more specialist coursesb
• boosting residents' existing skills and also re-skill them to close local skills gaps and also meet employers' changing requirements, such as the digitalisation and automation of workplaces, artificial intelligence and low-carbon business - where the low-skilled are at greater risk of redundancy
• ensuring that the skills system provides clear and flexible ways for residents to access skills and qualifications at every level to support lifelong learning
• integrating residents' wider needs, including mental health, financial advice and information and other guidance to provide wrap-around support for sustainable employment

Strategic Priority 3: tackling inequalities and barriers to skills and employment; ensuring that no-one is left behind, that all our residents are able to participate in, progress and achieve success in the labour market and skills system

• tackling the barriers that limit individual residents' opportunities to acquire skills and secure rewarding employment
• building aspirations and ambitions, alone, will not bring about a fully inclusive labour market or skills system - our research highlighted significant, sometimes complex, obstacles for some of our most disadvantaged residents that included issues such as in-work poverty resulting from low wages and childcare support cost
• ensuring equality of opportunity for all our residents through targeted and personalised support, much of which is already available locally, making it easier for residents to find the help they need