Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Chief Executive and the Director of Education and Skills

The Business, Economy and Enterprise Scrutiny Board (3) received a Briefing Note and Presentation of the Head of Employment & Skills and the Head of ICT & Digital regarding the position of provisions in place to support residents in gaining digital skills with a specific focus on digital skills for employment.

The report recognised that during the COVID19 pandemic, there had been a significant increase in the need for residents to be able to access and have confidence in using digital tools.  It was important that the Council make provision for supporting residents in gaining the relevant digital skills but also to be realistic with regards to the extent of the provision provided solely as a local government organisation.

Through the work of the Digital Coventry strategy and wider city-wide digital activity with key partners, the Council continued to look for ways to support a digital skills ecosystem that not only included the provision provided by the city council (further details were provided), but activities provided by partner and community group organisations.  The report explored the digital skills for employment provision provided by a range of providers such as Colleges and Independent Training Providers.

In the West Midlands 3% of the population were still offline (approx. 11,000 residents in Coventry). However, 30% of residents in the region still had very low digital engagement (completing basic tasks only and not regularly) – this would be approximately 111,000 Coventry residents.  The Lloyds Consumer Digital Index (2021) found 53% would improve digital skills if devices and internet access were cheaper and 67% would if they knew support was available to help.

Libraries were the main place in which residents could freely access devices. All Coventry libraries were now fully re-open and allowed residents 2 hours a day of free PC use.  In addition, there was free access to Wifi for residents who brought their own device.  The number of devices available was currently halved to allow for social distancing.  However, in August 2021 there were still 10,275 sessions (PC and Wi-Fi).  Whilst library usage was returning steadily, this remained down on pre-pandemic usage; for comparison there were 46,664 session in August 2019.

The libraries cannot currently offer face to face close support to residents in using the devices.  However, they could offer support from a distance and via help sheets.  There was also access to an online learning package called ‘Info based learning cloud’ which supported people in various online learning.  In addition to using libraries residents could freely access devices at all 9 Family Hubs and at the Coventry Job Shop.

In the West Midlands at least 82% of jobs required digital?skills, but 56% of the population did not have essential digital skills for work which equated to approximately 138,000 working age residents in Coventry.  Supporting residents with key digital skills could help to improve their job prospects and financial stability.

Coventry Adult Education were the largest provider of basic digital skills in the City and provided basic skills for 725 residents a year, many referred through the Coventry Job Shop.  Courses were delivered across the city including the City Centre, Cheylesmore, Stoke, Tile Hill and Willenhall as well as offering online courses.  Other providers of basic digital skills included Pet Xi and Go Train. 

For residents who wanted to develop their digital skills further; either to develop a digital career or for roles which required a higher level of digital skill, there were clearly defined digital pathways.  Residents could access a wide range of courses available through Coventry’s FE and Higher Education providers as well as Independent Training Providers, and progress through academic levels. For some they may be eligible for full funding, depending on factors such as their employment status and benefits entitlement.  Others could access the student loans system with the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee making it possible to use loans more flexibly for further education as opposed to just higher education.  A list of courses was attached to the report.

There was increased jobs growth in programming (especially coding) and software development with approximately 4530 jobs in Coventry and the surrounding areas and also many jobs in cyber security.  In addition, there was increased employer need for data science and analytics, cloud systems and services, ethical hacking and digital marketing including social media.

Skills support to meet demand in digital growth sectors: Through their £5 million Digital Retraining Fund WMCA commissioned providers across the region to focus on both newer and emerging digital skills such as coding, ethical hacking and cyber security.  Some of these courses had been focused in other areas of the region so had not been easy for Coventry residents to access.  However, Coventry Job Shop had been successful in engaging with Code Your Future who provided coding training specifically targeted at refugees.  In addition,  Netcom who attended Coventry Moves Into Work Event were providing higher level digital skills specifically focused on digital infrastructure.

At the same time FE Colleges including Coventry College and North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College (NWLSC) had improved their digital offer in the city.  Coventry College now do courses in cyber security and data management and NWLSC had opened a Digital Skills Academy at Coventry University Technology Park which offered coding, cyber security and cloud systems and services.

Coventry City Council were the lead for the ESF SME Skills for Growth Programme.  This supported SME businesses with 50% of their costs in providing training to upskill their workforce.  This included digital upskilling which supported both residents and businesses.  In the last year 8 SME employers had requested digital skills support and the scheme had helped 18 residents gain skills in areas such as digital marketing, search engine optimisation, Google ads training and Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel.

The Board questioned officers, received responses and discussed the following issues:

•  Employers working in collaboration with colleges and training providers on course content 

•  Bidding for Institute of Technology (IoT) funding as part of the government reforms to qualifications

•  The extent of discussions with possible IoT anchor employers

•  Disappointment that Coventry University had developed an IoT on their London Campus

•  Digital skills in demand now and future planning of a Skills Strategy to attract businesses and give Coventry marketing strength to attract businesses to the city.

•  The quality of Digital skills learned in school and the possibility of a Digital Academy

•  Support for businesses to enable them to become more digital in their business model

•  Flexibility of courses and the ability for people to attend if they are already working

Councillor Sandhu, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills highlighted the positive partnership working and good relationships with Academies in Coventry and welcomed a discussion with Headteachers on Digital Skills acknowledging the current challenges faced by schools.  Also, schools had developed relationships with Companies in the City.

Councillor O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs Regeneration and Climate Change acknowledged that working together was key to understanding opportunities and filling any skills gaps.  However, the environment was constantly changing and businesses were managing lots of uncertainty. He suggested that discussions with the Inward Investment Team could be useful.

Officers recognised that working in partnership and collaboration was really important as everyone in Coventry would be at different parts of their digital skills journey and also the environment was constantly evolving, and funding changed.

RESOLVED that, Business, Economy and Enterprise Scrutiny Board (3) recommended the Cabinet Members for Education and Skills, and Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change:

1)  champion with funders, employers and training providers, the possibility of an Institute of Technology based in Coventry subject to the Fund’s availability and to feedback to the Board in 3 months

2)  continue to support the Council in partnership working with employers in the digital and emerging technology industries and training providers in the City, to ensure that the training offered matches the skills required by employers