Sector Skills for North Yorkshire Initiative 2024/25

The Sector Skills for North Yorkshire initiative, funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, aimed to support local business, individuals and priority sectors across North Yorkshire.

By focusing on tailored training programmes, the initiative sought to address skill gaps and enhance local business growth and productivity, ensuring that the local workforce is well-prepared to meet the demands of the evolving industry needs.

Collaborative partnerships with educational institutions, industry leaders, and community organisations played a crucial role in delivering impactful and sustainable outcomes.

The key engagement activities consisted of:

  • Direct Employer Engagement
  • Sector Specific Forums
  • Organisational Needs Analysis & Skills Solutions

Course activity varied across:

  • Vocational Licensing
  • Part-funded Programmes
  • Bespoke Course development & implementation
  • Pre-existing Skills Programmes

Measuring Success:

  • Sector specific ONAs to identify need
  • Local Skills Provision matching need
  • Increase in Skills Programme takeup
  • New, bespoke courses developed for the region
  • Greater alignment between industry and education
  • North Yorkshire residents commencing new or upskilled roles

Project Outcomes:

  • 120 Businesses Engaged
  • 117 ONAs completed – across the 5 sectors

10 Sector Forums held:

  • 2 x Manufacturing
  • 2 x Construction
  • 4 x Health & Social Care
  • 2 x General Sector Skills

Project Outcomes – Beneficiaries:

  • Vocational Licenses: 96
  • Part-funded Courses: 25
  • Bespoke Courses: 128

Total of 249 North Yorkshire employees supported with upskilling, plus…

  • Participation on existing programmes (Skills Bootcamps, Apprenticeships, AEB): 54
  • Moved closer to employment (applications & interviews): 15

Project Impact

  • This project was extremely valuable in opening up conversations with businesses, even when they didn’t pursue a skills solution or engage in courses directly.
  • The project has enabled a great alignment and relationship development between businesses and training providers, that will be seen and felt across North Yorkshire for a long time.
  • Our delivery partners utilising an industry-led, community-driven model was valued for keeping training current and grounded in real-world challenges.
  • We utilised local venues for delivery therefore putting back into the community and some employers offered their training rooms for theirs and other employees to participate in training.
  • All courses developed were supported by NY based businesses, so we could justify it being a sector need and not an individual employer need.
  • Employers reported improved staff confidence and stronger team performance as a result of the training. Individuals gained valuable information and career progression opportunities, with many expressing increased job satisfaction.
  • Many beneficiaries have expressed the value in having dedicated time to learn new things, which has in turn benefited their mental and emotional health and brought a refresh back into the workplace.
  • The project sparked vital conversations about efficiency, future-proofing, and digital innovation.

Project Legacy & Next Steps

This project has created a lasting legacy by fostering stronger employer-education partnerships and embedding a culture of continuous skills development.

The project raised awareness of some new possibilities that the combined authority could bring to businesses in the region, increased awareness of apprenticeships, particularly specialist sector specific apprenticeships and delivered additional value for some of the delivery providers in strengthening their response to businesses.

More businesses are now aware of the benefits in engaging with FE & Skills providers and the benefits of skills training to improve business performance.  Employers are continuing to ask for continued support with training needs and skills solutions and this feels like just the start of a more skills orientated, aligned approach for North Yorkshire. The project has enabled employers to be involved in the co-design and in some cases co-delivery of skills-based programmes that meet the needs of their workplaces and the wider sector.