In Warwickshire, the LSIP is being developed in partnership with Warwickshire County Council through the Warwickshire Skills Hub and is being delivered by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, with support from Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.
It is building on the early success of the initiative which has helped Warwickshire to meet current and future skills needs in the region over the past two years by producing key priorities and actions for those responsible for training and education.
That includes the UK Government, Skills England, Warwickshire County Council, district and borough councils, colleges, independent training providers, adult education services, universities, chambers and other regional stakeholders.
The three workshops at Ashorne Hill, Warwick Racecourse and Weston Hall focused on different topics and, as well as discussing the barriers to better skills provision, business leaders were asked to discuss solutions too.
They were asked to give feedback on what would work better for their organisation and their staff and offer guidance on what might encourage more people to take up training and development.
The first workshop at Ashorne Hill covered Leadership Development and was followed by a session covering Digital Skills, AI and Adoption of New Technologies at Warwick Racecourse.
The series was rounded off at Weston Hall and looked at the Workforce of the Future – but the work doesn’t stop there.
The Warwickshire LSIP team will continue to engage with employers through surveys, over the phone interviews and face-to-face conversations to help inform a new report that will submitted to Government and written in to statute for local providers to follow.
Fay Winterburn, head of employability and skills at the Warwickshire Skills Hub, said: “We have been so pleased to see the level of turnout but also the really positive engagement with what we are trying to achieve.
“Warwickshire has been a standard bearer when it comes to skills and employability over many years and the LSIP is the next phase of that.
“We’ve heard some brilliant ideas around solutions and we look forward to taking these forward to make sure we continue to meet the needs of employers and individuals in the future.”
Corin Crane, chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “Businesses are very passionate about skills and it’s something we talk about a lot, especially at our Local Business Forums.
“The real beauty of these sessions is that we’ve really been able to tease out of employers – of all sizes and sectors – what they’d like to see as solutions to the issues in an ideal world.
“Colleges and training providers want to put on courses and invest in facilities that meet the local economy’s needs and, through the LSIP, that’s exactly what we are bringing together.”
The final LSIP will be published in summer 2026 but employers still have time to engage via Meaningful Engagement Surveys before March 6, using this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GSTHPFP
