Skills North East is the regional employment and skills partnership. It works through its partners to identify employment and skills needs in the North East and ensure action is taken to address them. Established in 2004, it is one of nine Regional Skills Partnerships across England.
The partnership's vision is that 'the North East will be a region where employers, individuals, communities and government collectively invest in the development of skills and businesses to contribute to sustainable economic growth and social justice'.
To achieve this Vision and to ensure that it truly adds value to the work of its partners, the partnership agreed in summer 2008 to refocus its activity on ten key tasks. These tasks will enable the partnership to work efficiently and effectively as new arrangements for employment and skills emerge at national, regional and local level. They are:
- 1.Developing, agreeing and monitoring the Employment and Skills element of the Regional Strategy.
- 2.Maintaining and sharing a robust labour market evidence base (both supply and demand) that is common across regional and sub-regional partners, and ensuring information, advice and guidance reflects this.
- 3.Integrating skills priorities with regional ambitions for strategic economic change through business support, sectoral growth and innovation, to promote demand for and supply of higher level skills, especially through a more robust workforce development planning approach
- Overseeing regional arrangements for Skills Brokerage, ensuring that it is fully integrated into enterprise and business support through Business Link, to stimulate and aggregate skills demand from SMEs.
- 5.Engaging with and influencing key national stakeholders – such as the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department for Work and Pensions, Sector Skills Councils, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, and Higher Education Funding Council – to address any issues that cannot be addressed sub-regionally
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6.Supporting sub-regional Employment and Skills Boards to engage with, respond to and inspire employers (public and private) to ensure that the demand led skills system delivers for employers and for the region. This will entail challenging where needed, and sharing and co-ordinating activity across sub-regions.
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7.Maintaining an overview of the separate arrangements for 14-19 and post-19 training provision, to ensure that the two systems address regional priorities of employers’ needs in a consistent and complementary way.
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8.Influencing public funding for employment and skills funding and the resulting outcomes for the region through the SFA, YPLA/local authorities, HEFCE, JCP and others.
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9.Promoting and adding value to local partners’ work to involve, listen to and inspire learners, maximising the impact of Skills Accounts
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10.Promoting the region nationally and internationally as a place to live, work and do business – the current Talent Attraction initiative
More information about how these tasks are being taken forward will be added over the coming months as activities, and this website, develop.
RESP Flyer [pdf]
(260 KB)
RESP - Mission, Aims and Objectives Brochure [pdf]
(855 KB)