Skills for the futureDeveloping Apprenticeships in Surrey

Peter Martin, Surrey County Council

Background • Only 1 in 5 schools provide sufficient IAG (Ofsted, Going

in the Right Direction?)

• Less than 1% of young people have used the National Careers Service helpline (National Careers Council)

• More than half (55%) of employers said that school leavers’ numeracy skills were poor or very poor (FSB survey of 3,000 companies)

• More than two-thirds of employers (69%) said they rated school leavers’ literacy skills as poor or very poor (FSB survey of 3,000 companies)

The transformation of youth servicesPre-transformation (2011 / 2012) Post-transformation (2012 / 2013)

• No reduction in the numbers of NEET young people for years

• Lack of employment readiness among young people

• Low take up of apprenticeships in the county

• Improvements in engagement through Ready4Work

• Enhancing employability skills through SCC Skills Centres

• Exceeding our targets for placing young people in apprenticeships

What’s happening in Surrey • There is more practical and financial help

for employers

• We funded 265 apprenticeship grants in 2011/12

• The number of 16-19 apprentices is up by 4.7%

• We’ve more than halved the number of NEET young people from around 1000 to less than 450

• We are helping employers understand where young people add value

Making it easier to do business with us• £700m of our spend as a Council is now with Surrey-based

suppliers

• Our BuildSurrey supplier network has advertised over£3.6m worth of small contracts to local SMEs

• We are working with 7 districts and boroughs, local housing associations and other buyers who would benefit from access to these suppliers

• We are expecting to place 60 apprentices in our supply chain this year

Making it easier to do business with us• We were joint winners of the Government’s ‘Best Councils

to do business with’ award

• We now have shared leadership of procurement and have launched a new, simplified e-sourcing portal

• We have simplified our PQQs and are adopting a tell-us-once approach for common business information

• We are publishing Surrey-based public sector contract opportunities on our own local Supply2Surrey website to help companies find them easily.

Superfast BroadbandProject Aim:

● To provide high speed broadband access to all homes and businesses in Surrey by deploying BT’s fibre based infrastructure to more than 84,000 Surrey homes and businesses not served by the commercial market

Timescales:

● May 2013 - First community connected in Pixham Village, near Dorking

● September 2013 - First 15,000 premises connected

● June 2014 - Up to 75,000 premises connected

● December 2014 - roll-out completed

Funding:

● £35 million programme (£20m from SCC, £13.8m from BT, £1.3m from DCMS)

Engagement to employment

R4W – Re-engagement programme

Skills Centres – employability skills

WEX – paid and unpaid

Traineeships

Apprenticeships and employment

What have we learned since the transformation?

• We need to offer young people a clear skills pathway that provides clear stepping stones to progress from being NEET to an apprenticeship

• Developing partnerships with employers in Surrey is essential to deliver a successful apprenticeship programme.

• It’s not just large employers that can employ an apprentice so don’t discount SMEs

Where do we go from here?• More joint working

• Build on SCC’s Ready For Work programme

• Create flexible learning pathways

• Target more apprenticeships

• Link information and education to the future jobs market

• Develop more employer partnerships in education and training