Skills for Productivity

Developing skills for the changing economy

Improving the skills of the workforce is central to the region’s economic development. For businesses, a more highly skilled workforce will achieve increased competitiveness and profitability. For individuals, better skills lead to enhanced career options and higher wages. The region’s economy and the available job opportunities and skills requirements have also changed significantly over time and will continue to change. Workers must therefore adapt their skills to move into new sectors and work with new technologies. This will be particularly important as working lives lengthen.

Overall, the East of England’s skills base compares unfavourably with the national average, particularly in terms of its supply of intermediate and higher-level skills. This can be partly explained by the low percentage of adults undertaking job-related training, the low percentage of graduates and postgraduates remaining in the region and the high number of people entering low-skilled employment after compulsory education. The East of England’s entry rate to higher education is lower than average, with higher rates of economic activity among young people being a key reason for the region’s high employment rate. However, the picture is not uniform across the East of England. Alongside localities exhibiting low-skilled, low-productivity activity - particularly the peripheral areas of Great Yarmouth, Fenland, Maldon, Castle Point and Tendring - are areas such as Cambridge and St Albans, with residents and workforces that are amongst the highest skilled in the country.

For the region to develop as a successful economy, skills levels must be raised across the board. The region needs to increase the demand for learning among individuals, employees and employers, and improve progression to intermediate and higher-level skills. This will involve enhancing the skills of our indigenous population and embracing the skills and talent of migrant workers and international students. Given the difficulties of predicting and planning the future supply of skills, the regional economic strategy also seeks to ensure that skills provision responds flexibly to changing demand.

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