Great Yarmouth Skills and Employability Strategy 2024-2029

Engineering: engineering businesses compete for skilled works against both other engineering businesses and other industries that employ people in engineering-related roles. This includes traditional roles such as mechanical and electrical jobs, with skills in fabrication and welding in high demand. Basic hand-skills and machine operation skills are needed in manufacturing businesses and there is high demand for maintenance operations. NVQ Level 2/3 skills unlock a range of opportunities and ways for people to progress to specialist and highly-skilled or technical roles.

Civil engineering and construction: demand for civil engineering skills remains high due to ongoing building projects across the region, including the Sizewell scheme. Nuclear newbuild at Sizewell in Suffolk will provide a range of opportunities for local businesses of different types - and for workers across a range of skills-levels, including low/mid skilled work. The demand for staff and skills at different stages of this massive project will produce peaks of demand for specific skills, which could distort the labour market and make it even more difficult for other businesses to attract and retain the right staff. This may have knock-on effects - for example, on house builders where a lack of available, skilled labour might result in project delays.

Energy and maritime: maritime and energy-related skills support high-value, resilient jobs, with a range of different roles at sea and onshore with progression and promotion opportunities. Current skills shortages include areas like the installation and maintenance of offshore energy projects, able seamen, qualified engineers and various technical and professional services, such as environmental analysis, lifting and helicopter/boat pilots. A general shortage of skilled engineers is a key challenge for these businesses.

Manufacturing: around two thirds of manufacturers have reported a lack of technical skills among job applicants and almost as many report an insufficient number of people actually applying for jobs. There are current or predicted shortages in technical skills such as robotics, artificial intelligence, software, data analysis, and electrical/electronic engineering. Before Brexit, it was common practice to respond to these shortages by moving highly-skilled engineers at short notice across the EU.

Health and social care: the policy of freedom of movement and mutual recognition of professional qualifications within the EU meant that many health and social care professionals working in the UK came from other EU countries. The NHS and care homes are struggling to recruit and retain permanent staff, with particular gaps in nursing, midwifery and health visitors. There are issues at various levels within these organisations, not only in highly-skilled roles, but in the vast body of healthcare assistants that make up a large portion of the NHS workforce.

Hospitality and tourism: in addition to social media skills and specialisms such as cheffing, the hospitality sector recognises that business management and leadership skills are required for employees to progress within businesses. In terms of workforces, the biggest challenges for businesses are front-of-house staff and chefs. The significant number of people employed within this industry - and the variety of roles - in addition to the number of smaller, newer businesses requires a personalised approach to designing and providing training that recognises the industry's importance in developing 'soft' skills and 'people' skills in young people

Education: education and skills providers, schools and colleges, themselves, face big recruitment challenges, particularly in more specialist or technical areas. This is often because people with those skills and experience are better paid in industry that they would be in teaching. Finding ways to close this salary gap and ensuring that industries, themselves, can support the teaching and skills development that they need is essential. Aside from supporting education, there is a clear need for industries, themselves, to get into schools to inspire our young people and encourage them to see learning and qualifications as a way to access more secure, better-rewarded jobs.

Cross-cutting 'green' skills: aside from supporting the local cluster of businesses involved in renewable energy, 'green' skills are essential to meeting the Government's low-carbon or net-zero ambitions. There are also new business opportunities in energy efficiency housing retrofit, including new energy efficient heating systems. In order to meet Government ambitions, the number of people with 'green' skills will need to increase and provision tied into new courses, classes and qualifications.

Cross-cutting digital skills: these are increasingly essential to modern workplaces - including those that offer hybrid working - and advanced digital qualifications provide routes to highly-skilled careers. Intermediate digital skills are required for workplace automation and specialisms such as digital marketing. Basic digital skills equip residents to access employment across a range of different roles and industries. The national school curriculum is still slightly mis-matched to the actual needs of employers. Local digital exclusion and digital poverty- where people aren't able to use or access the internet in ways that are needed to participate fully in modern society - is more common in more deprived areas.

'Basic' skills: A lack of English, maths and 'English for speakers of other languages' qualifications are a barrier to residents securing many jobs and can affect their ability to progress to higher-level qualifications or more senior roles within employers. Basic skills also support community cohesion and integration

'Soft' skills: employers across a range of industries highlight the importance of - and a lack of - 'soft' skills, which are the general skills and people skills that most employers look for when they're recruiting. 'Soft' skills boost people's initial employability, their ability to remain in employment and the opportunities they have for career progression. 'Soft' skills include teamwork, problem-solving and active listening.Employers also highlight poor quality behaviours, particularly in young people, such as attitude and work ethic. Tourism businesses tend to employ younger staff, which presents a significant opportunity to nurture local soft skills.

Entrepreneurial skills: entrepreneurial skills will support the growth of local businesses and their diversification into new goods and services, drive innovation and support the creation of new businesses - start-ups and spin-outs. Better business management and leadership skills will improve local productivity and sustainability. It is important to maintain the Borough's entrepreneurial culture and this will require business support and mentoring beyond business start-up and launch.