Barbara Davies, chief executive of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), says that collaborative working between business and education are essential to maintain growth and productivity in the longer term.
Businesses in the West of England continue to face the challenge of a skills gap, impacting on growth and stifling productivity and future innovation. 
A key question for the LEP is how to ensure that the skills demands of the business community can be met now and in the future?
The most important element is to ensure that both business and education are aware of business skills needs, which is why West of England LEP conducts an annual skills survey.
A total of 643 business based in the West of England responded to last year’s survey, operating across 15 sectors with diverse needs and practices, their responses indicate some key trends in future skills requirements.
The results supported the development of a skills action plan developed in partnership with local FE colleges, informing curriculum planning and a new West of England Skills Prospectus 2016 for individuals and employers.
The Skills Prospectus is designed to help students of all ages make informed career choices in the key sectors across the West of England, ranging from creative industries and construction to engineering and health, by outlining how and where students can develop the skills that local employers want and need. The prospectus is just a taster of what’s on offer across Further Education and private training providers locally within our priority sectors.
Our Skills Junction online portal brings together information from educational institutions across the West of England, to help individuals and businesses find courses locally. skillsjunction.co.uk
Working with the business in the our key sectors and using the information gathered from the Skills Survey we have a suite of Local Sector Skills Statements, outlining priorities for action to help tackle skills gaps and future skills needs locally.
Approved by LEP sector chairs and developed in partnership with sector group representatives these Sector Skills Statements are being used by colleges and universities to inform their curriculum planning and careers advice as a benchmark for what the sectors want to achieve.
By linking businesses needs to education our aims are to improve careers information, advice and guidance and raise the quality and local responsiveness of education and training.
We will work to endure this leads to an increase in apprenticeship starts and improve access to higher and degree apprenticeships, boosting productivity and building capacity for growth and enhancing equality and diversity in the workforce.
Our ultimate aim is to bring business and education closer together, the division between education and industry is one that impacts not only at the individual level, but also economic regions as a whole.
Discover more about the West of England LEP here
