Our Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP)

In August 2023, the Department for Education approved London’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), as well as the annexes setting out the specific priorities and recommendations for each of London’s four sub-regions, including the nine boroughs that make up the Local London sub-region.

What is a Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) and why does it matter?

An LSIP is an employer-led and data driven plan for better matching training provision to employer skills demands. LSIPs will:

• Identify current, future and priority skills needs in the Local London sub-region.
• Direct system changes and training courses.
• Ensure post-16 technical education and skills provision is more responsive and flexible in meeting local labour market skills needs.
• Close gaps to ensure all people have the right skills to build successful long-term careers and help businesses fill vacancies and get more Londoners into jobs.
• Make skills more accessible and address barriers to progression.
• Increase productivity, reduce unemployment and boost London’s growth and business performance.

Backed by the Department for Education, with support from London’s Employer Representative Bodies (ERBs), the Greater London Authority (GLA), the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), local government and the third sector, we engaged with employers and training providers to set out local priorities for addressing these needs.

⇒Read Mind the Skills Gap – Our employer-led plan for improving skills and training in our sub-region. An Annex to London’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP).

⇒Read the Technical Report and data informing ‘Mind the Skills Gap’.

The five priority sectors for employers in our boroughs

Research identified these five priority sectors for addressing skills needs in our nine boroughs:

• Construction
• Digital and Creative
• Health and Social Care
• Manufacturing
• Distribution

In addition, this research identified 8 cross-cutting themes: green skills; digital skills; support (including ESOL); skills provision; information and advice; cooperation and engagement; funding; and tackling inequality.

What you will find in an LSIP

• High-quality, consolidated, and accessible data that gives us a better understanding of London’s labour market on which better decisions can be made about training provision and meeting skills needs.
• Stronger employer–training provider relationships and better information sharing.
• Reduction in skills gaps and vacancies, while more Londoners from all communities are getting into jobs.
• More of London’s unemployed and inactive helped to get the right skills and into jobs.
• Better support for training providers to deliver the skills that will help current employees reskill, upskill and progress.
• A blueprint for providers, policymakers and employers which can be measured, reviewed and updated annually.

How we are developing the LSIP

• In Feb-March 2023 we contacted employers with an interest in skills provision to take part in workshops and respond to surveys to identify and prioritise needs, and solutions.
• In summer 2023 we shared this intelligence with the GLA and BusinessLDN, and this formed part of the London-wide LSIP approved by the Secretary of State for Education.
• In autumn 2023 we will be working with businesses to carry out the recommendations to skills provision.

Making the Local London LSIP a reality

On 14 September, 12.30-2pm, we held an online launch of ‘Mind the skills gap’ our employer-led plan for improving skills and training in our boroughs and next steps for making it reality, and heard from:

• Cllr Baroness O’Neill of Bexley OBE, Leader of Bexley Borough Council and Chairman of Local London on the importance of LSIPs.
• Dr Noorzaman Rashid, Chief Executive of CEME on the skills issues currently facing industry.
• The Institute Institute of Employment Studies on their findings.
• London South East Colleges on how local training providers are responding to the LSIP, and
• Local London on how we will be progressing this work.
• Local businesses and employment services.

Get involved

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in our workshops, interviews and online survey. The LSIP for the Local London sub-region and the London-wide LSIP were approved by the Secretary of State for Education in August 2023.

The publication of the LSIP is just the beginning of the journey. Over the next year, as we seek to publicise the LSIP, we will be seeking opportunities to maintain and strengthen the lines of communication and opportunities to collaborate between employers, providers, learners and other key stakeholders, as well as working with employers and providers to implement the recommendations made within the LSIP.

If you would like to find out more about our LSIP work, have any comments on the process or views on how we can work to improve skills provision in the Local London sub-region, please contact: lsip.locallondon@redbridge.gov.uk

⇒Read Mind the Skills Gap – Our employer-led plan for improving skills and training in our sub-region. An Annex to London’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP).

⇒Read the Technical Report and data informing ‘Mind the Skills Gap’.

⇒Discover the pan-London Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) , developed by Business LDN, along with the four sub-regional plans.