What Tim Bowles is doing about skills inequalities across the West of England

Despite few formal devolved powers, Tim Bowles has unveiled a package of measures to boost skills provision in the West of England.

Blog post published on 10 June 2019 by Rebecca McDonald

Last month, the West of England’s first metro mayor Tim Bowles finished his second year in office. Alongside overseeing the development of the region’s Local Industrial Strategy, he has used his position to launch a number of policy initiatives, many of which have been focused on education and training.

This is no surprise given that two of the Mayor’s objectives are boosting productivity and achieving a more inclusive economy. The West of England is already the most highly-skilled combined authority in England – with 49 per cent of residents having higher-education qualifications – but this overall figure masks significant inequalities within the region. Within Bristol, for example, education attainment at GCSE level is more than 80 per cent higher in Cotham than in Hartcliffe and Withywood. Raising the skills of those who currently have the least will be a vital step towards making the economic opportunities of the region accessible to all, so it’s encouraging to see the Mayor prioritising this.

In particular, Tim Bowles has introduced two main skills initiatives.

In September 2018, the Mayor launched a Careers Hub for secondary schools across the region, in partnership with the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). It is funded by the Careers and Enterprise Company, initially open to 25 schools in the region but extended in May 2019 to include all 70 mainstream schools.

The Hub aims to better inform pupils about the wide range of careers available when they leave school, and to ensure this advice is given to all pupils regardless of their background. Enterprise Advisers volunteer from local businesses and work with the schools to provide careers advice and work experience.

A second initiative introduced by the Mayor is Future Bright, a scheme which provides training and development support to those receiving in-work benefits. This is one of six education pilot schemes funded in combined authorities across the country by the Department of Work and Pensions. The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) received £4 million and, under the leadership of Tim Bowles, chose to launch Future Bright.

Individuals are supported for 3 to 6 months with practical advice, training and development and funding to cover costs. The goal of the programme is increased confidence at work, higher pay and faster career progression.

While it’s too early to assess the success of these schemes, it’s vital that both incorporate robust evaluations. Then, the lessons learned about how to design effective skills programmes can be applied to future WECA programmes and shared with other authorities around the country. It will also be important to ensure that his skills reforms are part of a broader package of measures that span transport, housing and making the West of England an even better place to do business.

So far the Mayor has had few devolved powers to work with when designing skills policy, but from September the Adult Education Budget will become his responsibility. Given his focus so far on skills initiatives to achieve his objectives, it will be important to watch how he uses this new opportunity to tailor adult education to best suit the needs of his electorate, and further improve the West of England’s economic prosperity.

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