At this meeting we will be discussing the topic of skills. We will hear from Michael Davis, MD of Ecorys UK who is going to provide an update on the status of skills across the UK as well as in Birmingham. Following this, we will hold a panel debate chaired by Marc Reeves, West Midlands Editor-in-Chief at Trinity Mirror to discuss further the issue of skills in the Birmingham and West Midlands area. Our panel participants for this event will include mayoral candidates: • Andy Street • Beverley Nielsen • Siôn Simon MEP

1. MARKETING BIRMINGHAM
PARTNER EVENT
5th April 2017
NEIL RAMI
CEO, Marketing Birmingham

2. #MBPartners

3. WEST MIDLANDS COMBINED AUTHORITY
Seven Metropolitan Local Authorities
• Birmingham
• Coventry
• Wolverhampton
• Dudley
• Sandwell
• Walsall
• Solihull
Three Local Enterprise Partnerships
• Greater Birmingham and Solihull
• Black Country
• Coventry and Warwickshire
#MBPartners

5. WMCA STRATEGIC ECONOMIC PLAN
£8bn Devolution Deal from Government
Ambitious plan for the next 30 years:
• Creating 500,000 new jobs
• Creating 20,000 new businesses
• Grow the economy at a faster rate
• Improving transport
• Improving skills
#MBPartners

6. WEST MIDLANDS GROWTH COMPANY
• Marketing the region
• Attracting new businesses and capital investment
• Growing the visitor economy
• Co-ordinating support to businesses
• Market intelligence
“Attracting investment, jobs, visitors and businesses to the West Midlands”
#MBPartners

7. WEST MIDLANDS GROWTH COMPANY
• Vote of confidence
• Build on existing strengths
• Work across a regional footprint
• Additional funding from WMCA and others
• Strong engagement from private sector
Marketing Birmingham asked to form the Growth Company
#MBPartners

8. MAYORAL ELECTION 4TH MAY

9. MARKETING BIRMINGHAM
PARTNER EVENT
5th April 2017
MICHAEL DAVIS
UK Managing Director, Ecorys

10. Michael Davis
UK Managing Director
Ecorys

11. Demand
for Skills
Ambition
Confidence
Execution
Workplace
Supply of
Skills
DemandSupply
Mismatch
Stock
Initial
Education
Flow
Lifelong
Learning
Match
Profit, Wage
Growth,
Employment,
Productivity
Unemployment,
Skills shortages,
under-employed
migration

12. Supply
• Flow
– Highest proportion of young people under 24 in England
– Proportion of young people (16-18) not in education or employment 5.8%
(national average 4.7%)
– Above average educational attainment at age 16 but significant variation across
Combined Authority
• Stock
– 68.2% Employment rate (national average 74%)
– Claimant count unemployment 3.8% (UK 2.4%)
• Attainment
– 14% population no qualifications (national average 8.6%)
– 28.6% qualified at Level 4+ (national average 35.7%)

13. Demand
Confidence
Execution
• Ambition
– Birmingham highest number of start-ups outside London
• Confidence
– West Midlands 4th highest region in UK for foreign direct investment projects
attracting 8% of all opportunities (by volume)
• Execution (UK data)
– UK has relatively lower rate of qualified managers
– ¾ Total Factor Productivity gap with USA down to management practices
– 66% UK employees work for companies with below average productivity

14. Workplace
• Productivity
– If UK average is 100 widgets per hour worked, West Midlands is 87 (9th out of 13
UK city regions) and within Region, Sandwell would be 81 and Solihull 113
Widgets
• Wages
– Average Birmingham weekly workplace earnings £482 (UK average £507)
• Skills challenges [Health warning Peril of Averages]
– West Midlands above England average in skills shortage vacancies
– but (slightly) below average provision of off job training and (in line with England)
reduction in training days per employee but still highest average in England at
7.5 days

15. Demand
for Skills
Ambition
Confidence
Execution
Workplace
Supply of
Skills
DemandSupply
Mismatch
Stock
Initial
Education
Flow
Lifelong
Learning
Match
Profit, Wage
Growth,
Employment,
Productivity
Unemployment,
Skills shortages,
under-employed
migration

16. Four propositions to reflect on
• Skills strategies should always be framed within the bigger context of labour
markets, business and economic strategy
• Recognising and seize the opportunity to raise the latent productivity potential of
business
• Everything is in place for apprenticeships to be a transformative opportunity for
individuals and industry but requires absolute clarity of purpose first
• Full devolution of skills necessitates investing in the ‘soft infrastructure’ to create
genuinely sustainable partnerships between businesses, schools, colleges and
universities

17. MARKETING BIRMINGHAM
PARTNER EVENT
5th April 2017
MARC REEVES
Editor in Chief, Trinity Mirror Midlands

18. WEST MIDLANDS SKILLS CHALLENGE
MARC REEVES
(Chair)
Beverley Nielsen
Liberal Democrats
Siôn Simon MEP
Labour
Andy Street
Conservative
#MBPartners