We’ll be continuing to update this page as work on Cumbria’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) progresses so please do keep coming back to check progress and get involved. We’re also communicating regularly through emails and other opportunities.
Thank you!
Many thanks to the hundreds of you countywide who’ve been contributing to this year’s LSIP – and to the hundreds who contributed to the Trailblazer pilot.
Your input is absolutely fundamental to making this report something that really works for Cumbria.
To keep up to date with LSIP news sign up to our monthly Insight newsletter here.
This report provides an update on progress since the publication of Cumbria’s LSIP in 2023, which can be accessed below. It highlights progress, impact/benefits to date, future plans and
any changes since the 2023 report was published, including any new/more granular intelligence.
“I welcome the publication of the Local Skills Improvement Plan Progress Report for Cumbria. These reports set out progress made on meeting the skills needs of local employers. As well as being a valuable source of information for local skills deliverers, employers and stakeholders, the reports along with the LSIPs themselves, will provide important intelligence for the newly established Skills England.” (The Minister for Skills, The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern)
In producing this work the Chamber and a range of other employer bodies and industry specialists engaged with hundreds of employers countywide, employer bodies, providers and other stakeholders. Activity included both primary research (surveys, 1-2-1 discussions, focus groups) and secondary research. This included drawing on other studies commissioned by the DfE and others, slightly earlier or in parallel.
This is, and as always been intended as, a living document and partners have been working over the months since it was submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) to implement and continue to update actions. We’ll be keeping you posted on that progress moving forward.
If you’d like to discuss any element of the plan then please do get in touch.
Supporting the above LSIP report are a number of other reports, providing more detail on specific sectors:
LSIPs are employer-led and locally owned.
They set out the key priorities needed to make technical education and skills provision more responsive to the changing needs of employers and the local economy by:
While all post-16 technical education or training is in scope, an LSIP is not intended to be comprehensive anthology of all skills gaps in the area. It will be for employers, through us, to identify the most pressing skills issues. We’ll also be looking to complement spotlights on specific sectors by considering cross-cutting issues such as low carbon, digitalisation and transferable ‘soft’ skills affecting businesses in all sectors.
In addition to looking at existing qualifications and apprenticeships, our LSIP will identify the sort of non-accredited and quintessentially local provision that can best meet emerging skills need.
In essence it’s about ensuring we have the right provision to enable people to do their current and future jobs better.
While LSIPs are employer-led, they’re certainly not about employer representative bodies (ERBs) or employers working alone. If we’re truly going to make this work in the best interests of Cumbria, then the range of stakeholders need to continue to work as actively and constructively together as for the pilot.
So we’re keen for everyone with an interest in skills to be actively involved:
This isn’t an exhaustive list so if you don’t think you fit into the above list but have something to contribute please get in touch!
We have created the following list of local training providers and colleges within the county offering a great range of training including apprenticeships, Bootcamps, and more. The list below links you directly to those providers.
We will be updating this list regularly and adding new training providers. If you’re a provider not on the list please contact joe@cumbriachamber.co.uk.
We’d also recommend checking out the following organisations…
ERB partners working with us on the LSIP are:
There will be continuing opportunities to take part in 1-2-1 discussions and workshops, complete surveys and review and comment on findings as we progress with further development of the LSIP right through to at least 2025. We’ll be highlighting them here and elsewhere.
Contact the LSIP project team joe@cumbriachamber.co.uk
Openness, fairness and transparency are important to us. You can read our LSIP Conflicts of Interest Policy here and our Anti Bribery and Corruption Policy here.
You can read the Register of Interests for people working directly on the LSIP here.