MARKETING BIRMINGHAM PARTNER EVENT

5th April 2017NEIL RAMICEO, Marketing Birmingham

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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

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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

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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”

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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

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MAYORAL ELECTION 4TH MAY

MARKETING BIRMINGHAM PARTNER EVENT

5th April 2017MICHAEL DAVISUK Managing Director, Ecorys

Michael DavisUK Managing DirectorEcorys

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

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%)

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

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

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

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

MARKETING BIRMINGHAM PARTNER EVENT

5th April 2017MARC REEVESEditor in Chief, Trinity Mirror Midlands

WEST MIDLANDS SKILLS CHALLENGE

MARC REEVES(Chair)

Beverley Nielsen

Liberal Democrats

Siôn Simon MEPLabour

Andy StreetConservative

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