Harlow Enterprise Zone Skills Plan Full Version - West Essex Alliance

132 Pages·2013·1.37 MB·English

HARLOW ENTERPRISE ZONE

Skills Plan
Full Version, up to March 2016

March 2013
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CONTENTS

Executive Summary 1

Introduction 5

Raising Aspirations 8

Manufacturing and Advanced Manufacturing Sector Profile 18
- Defining the Advanced Manufacturing sector 18
- The picture of the wider Manufacturing sector within West Essex 19
- Advanced Manufacturing in West Essex 21
- The skill needs and requirements 25
- Skills and training provision in West Essex 39
- Creating an Advanced Manufacturing Centre of Excellence 42

Information and Communication Technology Sector Profile 44
- Defining the ICT Sector 44
- ICT in West Essex 46
- Technology companies 52
- Skills requirements of ICT focused businesses 56
- ICT professionals working in non ICT sectors 62
- Developing a pipeline of skilled talent 66
- West Essex ICT related Training Provision 70

Life Science Sector Profile 73
- Defining the Life Science Sector 73
- Life Science Sector in West Essex 73
- Links between Life Sciences and other EZ employment sectors 79
- Review of 100 jobs advertised on the One Nucleus website 83
- The Skill and knowledge requirements of the Life Science Sector 88
- West Essex Training Provision 95
- COGENT’s Industrial Partnership Employer Ownership of Skills Bid 98

Summary of the three Harlow Enterprise Zone Sector Profiles 100

Appendix 1: Apprenticeships 103

Appendix 2: The Sir Charles Kao UTC 110

Appendix 3: The challenges of small and micro businesses 113

Appendix 4: Harlow Enterprise Zone Skills Action Plan 117

Appendix 5: List of Tables 126

Appendix 6: List of Abbreviations 127
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Enterprise Zone (EZ) at Harlow is an opportunity to stimulate both economic and
jobs growth in Harlow and West Essex. This Skills Plan covers the three main
employment sectors that the Enterprise Zone intends to attract, namely:

 Advanced Manufacturing
 ICT
 Life Science
The purpose of the EZ Skills Plan is to ensure that potential EZ employers will have the
confidence that they will be able to attract and recruit suitably skilled and qualified local
people. By understanding and articulating the core skills that the EZ sectors require,
local people can be supported in acquiring the appropriate skills to enable them to
access the potential jobs that the EZ will bring.

The Plan has been developed through a partnership approach, encouraging participation
via the West Essex Skills and Learning Forum and the West Essex Alliance. The Skills
Plan has been produced through a combination of reviewing the existing national
literature on skills needs and gaps, engaging with partners and stakeholders and,
crucially, holding detailed conversations with targeted local employers from the key
sectors.

The need to raise aspirations and to open opportunities

Raising aspirations will enable a greater proportion of the local population to achieve
higher levels of educational attainment and thus have access to a wider range of
employment, including that which the EZ will provide. Essential underlying issues and
activities that need to be tackled to ensure that this happens include:

 Raising awareness of the types of employment that are available locally, and
building an understanding of the career pathways that would enable local people
to achieve positions within local companies and future employers located within
the EZ.
 Coordinated targeted activity is needed through a partnership of local training
providers, the public sector, and local employers to overcome the barriers that
prevent people accessing the high value employment that is available locally.
 Developing creative programmes that engage and inspire children, young people
and the wider local population with STEM1 subjects. This is to help encourage
local people to aspire to work in the EZ target sectors and other STEM related
employment areas.

1 STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects 

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Raising educational attainment

The EZ sectors require a higher skills profile than currently exists in general throughout
the local population. Therefore, in order to ensure that local people are able to access
the employment that the EZ will provide, there is a need to raise educational attainment
levels within the local population, both generally and in particular with relation to STEM
subjects. Measures required to achieve this include:

 Developing creative educational programmes that stimulate interest in STEM
subjects at Primarily School level upwards.
 Increasing the proportion of students that achieve five GCSEs graded A* to C
including English and Maths.
 Increasing educational attainment across West Essex, at all levels from Primary
to higher level skills. At the same time there need to be efforts to reduce the
current disparity between Harlow and the other districts, particularly in the
fundamental core skills of literacy, numeracy and STEM subjects.
 Ensuring that both Vocational and Academic routes into employment are equally
valued and promoted to enable young people to make informed choices.
 Ensuring that there are clear progression routes from employment entry points
that enable employees to achieve higher level qualifications whilst working.

Boosting quality employer engagement

Quality employer engagement is central to developing training provision that helps build
a highly employable workforce with the skills required by local employers. This is true
within the three EZ sectors, but is applicable also to the wider economy. Conversations
with local employers from within the target sectors have helped to identify the skills
needs highlighted within this Skills Plan. Greater employer engagement needs to be
developed so that local training provision is shaped and led by local employers, thereby
creating local skills provision that is valued and supported by local employers.

 Employers need targeted and tailored training opportunities based on their real
business needs and deliverable in today's business context.
 Small and micro businesses need to be supported to access training that meets
their skills needs and is delivered in ways that reduce the risks for employers and
simplifies the processes.
 Training provision needs to be flexible and able to evolve quickly to meet the
changing skills needs required by employers.

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Sector Profiles

In-depth sector profiles of the three employment sectors that the EZ wishes to attract are
included in this Skills Plan. Each sector profile explores the definition and characteristics
of the sector, the footprint within West Essex (including reference to key local
employers), and the growth potential afforded through the EZ. It also outlines the current
skills needs and requirements of employers within the sector. Local training provision for
the sector is also highlighted.
Summarised below are the key skills needs identified for each sector.

1. Advanced Manufacturing Sector:
 Engineering skills
 Advanced IT skills
 CNC machine operation
 CAD/ CAM
 3D Printing
 Leadership and Management
 Sales and Marketing
 Exporting skills
 Supply Chain Management
2. ICT sector:
Technology companies:
 Electronic Engineers & Technicians
 Programmers and Developers
IT focused businesses:
 Network Infrastructure skills
 Programmers and Software developers
 Web Designers and Development Professionals
 Microsoft / Linux Programmers
 App Developers
 Big Data Analysts
ICT professionals working in non ICT sectors:
 Enterprise Architects
 Product Specific Roles
 Solution Architects
 Application Development
 Security
 ICT Teachers and Assessors
3. Life Science Sector:
 Scientists
 Sales and Marketing
 Quality Assurance
 Manufacturing
 Informatics / Health Economists / Mathematicians
 Product Development
 Project Managers
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 Business skills
 Exporting
 Supply Chain Management
 Understanding of access to healthcare markets
Taking the Skills Plan Forward

The West Essex Skills and Learning Forum is a key mechanism for taking this Skills
Plan forward. The Forum's immediate task is to develop a joint programme of activity to
both implement and further develop the plan. The capacity of the Forum will be
developed with a view to ensuring it is able to influence key funding bodies such as
SELEP and other potential funding bodies.

The Harlow Enterprise Zone Skills Plan is the first step towards the production of the
wider West Essex Skills Strategy. The Strategy will review the skills needs of the main
existing employment sectors of the area, as well as examining the wider issues relating
to the challenges faced in raising the skills and opportunities of the local population.

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INTRODUCTION

Harlow Enterprise Zone

The Enterprise Zone (EZ) at Harlow is an opportunity to stimulate both economic and
jobs growth in Harlow and West Essex. The target sectors, presented below, were
chosen based upon Harlow and West Essex’s existing economic and labour market
strengths. The Zone encompasses two sites in Harlow, at London Road and
Templefields North East, amounting to 51 Hectares and will produce up to 5,000 jobs.

The Enterprise Zone offers an excellent location for business within the UK’s most
important economic region. Harlow is in a prime, pivotal location – ‘on London’s
doorstep’; mid-way between London and Cambridge and uniquely well located to give
businesses access to Greater London. The EZ will also benefit from access to some of
the UK’s most important road and rail routes, and furthermore is located just a few miles
away from London Stansted Airport serving over 150 destinations across Europe;
London City and London Heathrow airports are also within easy reach.

Harlow was awarded Enterprise Zone (EZ) status in August 2011. Funding became
available from the Skills Funding Agency from March 2012 for Harlow Council to bid to
create a Skills Plan for the Enterprise Zone. The Plan covers the three main employment
sectors that the Enterprise Zone intends to attract, namely:

 Advanced Manufacturing
 ICT
 Life Science
A further factor has been Harlow’s role in the development of the ARU MedTech
campus, with the aspiration for it potentially to be sited at the EZ.

The purpose of the EZ Skills Plan is to ensure that potential EZ employers will have the
confidence that they will be able to attract and recruit suitably skilled and qualified local
people. By understanding and articulating the core skills and knowledge that the EZ
sectors require, both now and in the future, local people can be supported in accessing
the appropriate skills to enable them to access the potential jobs that the EZ will bring.

The development of the Skills Plan

The Plan has been developed through a partnership approach, encouraging participation
via the West Essex Skills and Learning Forum and the West Essex Alliance. The Skills
Plan has been produced through a combination of reviewing the existing national
literature on skills needs and gaps, engaging with partners and stakeholders and,
crucially, holding detailed conversations with targeted local employers from the key
sectors. The issues identified in the literature review were mostly reflected and
reinforced in the conversations with local employers, providing a local flavour to the
issues.

Engagement with local employers has highlighted a variety of good practice that is
already happening across the area. Case studies have been included within the Skills
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Plan in order to share good practice and to highlight examples of potential models or
approaches that could be repeated elsewhere.

The following two reports were also commissioned to provide background evidence for
the West Essex Skills Strategy and the EZ Skills Plan:

 Employment Sector Analysis of West Essex (report by Prosperica Ltd)
 West Essex – Skills Needs Assessment (report by Renaisi)
These reports can be accessed via the West Essex Alliance website
www.westessexalliance.org.

First step towards producing the West Essex Skills and Learning Strategy

It is acknowledged that the benefits of the Enterprise Zone in Harlow should and will be
felt by the wider population that lives across the whole of West Essex. An increase in
business at the Enterprise Zone will generate supply chain opportunities for businesses
across a greater geography.

West Essex covers the three Local Authorities of Uttlesford, Harlow and Epping Forest.
The Enterprise Zone Skills Plan is the first step towards the production of a West Essex
Skills Strategy. The West Essex Skills Strategy will have a wider remit than the EZ Skills
Plan.

The Strategy will review the skills needs and requirements of the main existing
employment sectors of the area, as well as examining the wider issues relating to the
challenges faced in raising the skills of the local population and increasing the
opportunities available to local people.

Critically, it will seek to address the skills deficits that exist in Harlow and other parts of
West Essex, which act as barriers to the local population achieving high value
employment.

The importance of Skills to the local economy

A skilled workforce contributes towards sustainable economic growth, both by increasing
people's employability and by enabling people to work more effectively, undertaking
more complex tasks. This raises the productivity and profitability of business. This Skills
Plan has been produced from an economic development perspective, starting from
employers' views of the skills, knowledge and expertise that they require in order to be
productive and to grow.

Employers do not see their skills needs purely in terms of certain qualification
frameworks. Rather, employers define their workforce skills requirements in the widest
terms. They consider the underlying requirement of being comfortable and competent
with maths and science, alongside general employability skills, as being often of higher
value than specific qualifications per se. As a consequence this Skills Plan refers to the
whole skills pathway continuum.

This starts in Primary School, and progresses through Secondary School and into
Further Education (FE) /Higher Education (HE) and, importantly, continues into the
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workplace. The Skills Plan covers both entry level skills and career pathways to higher
level skills. It will promote a culture of aspiration to support local people in their journey
toward achieving valuable employment.

It is critically important that young people are inspired to take STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects at school with a view to
employment in STEM-based occupations. Current workforce age structures will see the
retirement of many skilled workers in the near future.

Bringing forward the next generation of engineers, technicians and scientists is
imperative for the success of the Life Science, Advanced Manufacturing and ICT sectors
in West Essex and the Enterprise Zone.

Taking the Skills Plan Forward

This document is, in effect, an initial assessment of the skills needs that will arise from
business attracted to the Harlow Enterprise Zone, and how these can be addressed. At
this early stage of the EZ’s development it is necessarily a document designed to evolve
further over time in concert with the progress of job creation at the EZ.

The West Essex Skills and Learning Forum is a key mechanism for taking this Skills
Plan forward. The Forum's immediate task is to develop a joint programme of activity to
take forward this Skills Plan. The capacity of the Forum will be developed, with a view to
ensuring it is able to influence key funding bodies such as SELEP and other potential
funding bodies.

The Forum will also evolve in order to meet the challenge of this task, and to ensure that
relationships develop between education and training providers on the one hand, and
local businesses on the other, to promote on-going dialogue to meet the needs both of
businesses and of the local community.
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