Colleges team up in skill-match project

Citation

(2001), "Colleges team up in skill-match project", Education + Training, Vol. 43 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2001.00443fab.003

Colleges team up in skill-match project

Colleges team up in skill-match projectKeywords: Skills, Qualifications, Education, Colleges

Six further education colleges in Tyne and Wear are helping to match companies' skill needs with the right people for the job. The Workforce Planning project, by the G6 Tyne and Wear further education consortium, is also expected to help to attract more top employers to the region. The system maps employers' needs against the skills and qualifications of the G6 colleges' 102,000 students, identifying how many potential employees might be available to meet these needs, whether any skill gaps exist and what needs to be done to fill them. It could also be used to help people to get back into employment after major redundancies, by identifying the best way of equipping the redundant workforce to take advantage of available job opportunities.

The project's development has been funded by a £42,000 grant from the regional-development agency, One NorthEast. The institutions involved are City of Sunderland College, Gateshead College, Newcastle College, North Tyneside College, South Tyneside College and Tynemouth College. Paul Harvey, North Tyneside College principal, said: "When big companies look at making major investments in a certain area, they have to be sure that the local workforce has the skills they need to help their investment to succeed. Traditionally, labour-market analysis had been done retrospectively, meaning that it was often out of date even before it was used. With our new approach, we are using up-to-date information on current students and hence providing a much more accurate picture of the contemporary situation. "We can identify how many people might be available to fulfil certain roles, how long it would take to enhance existing skill levels to meet more sophisticated demands and even where a potential workforce lives, so companies can take this into account when looking for locations." He continued: "By looking closely at the local labour supply, we are able to show potential employers exactly how the region's workforce can help their businesses to succeed. We are confident that this will encourage more of them to locate in Tyne and Wear."

Further information is available on the Internet, at www.sixcolleges.com or Tel: +44 191 511 6305.