The skills portal enables collaboration between schools, colleges, universities, businesses and governments.
It is designed to help bridge the “soft” and “hard” skills gap and facilitate business-education collaboration.
It will link to varied resources to support schools in their delivery of employability skills, career guidance and deliver a programme of structured work placements and work experiences.
For business it provides a continuous quality pipeline of demand sector skills founded on strong employability skills. It enables businesses to demonstrate community values and support business growth and promotes best practice.
For education there is a business matching facility that will broker sustainable relationships between education and business to ensure young people have a comprehensive understanding of the world of work.
The system will also host a business database to support local trade.
Background
National and local government consultation with UK business have identified that there is a misalignment between education and the world of work.
Sectors such as food and drink, manufacturing, engineering and digital industries struggle to attract candidates with the right “hard” skills so UK businesses can find it difficult to remain competitive in the global economy.
Councillor Peter Box CBE, Chair of Leeds City Region Leaders Board and Leader of Wakefield Council approached education and business leaders in the district to consider a solution to reduce the Wakefield business skills gap.
In addition, many businesses are reporting that education leavers fail to demonstrate “soft” skills for the labour market. Employers often refer to confidence, motivation, teamwork and general social skills as critical areas requiring improvement.