Search the Black Country by map

“The Black Country has 566,300 people with some form of qualification. These qualifications are not necessarily in the skills deemed as advantageous by our transformational sectors. Businesses have difficulties in recruiting skilled employees and there is a need to increase the match of demand (businesses) to supply (colleges, private providers etc).”

To build on the Black Country’s unique opportunity, high value manufacturing companies such as JLR, who are locating and expanding in the Black Country, will need access to an adequately skilled workforce.

Skilled people are the driving force behind business growth; skilled people are more productive and more innovative. Employability is vital in order to enable Black Country residents to take advantage of labour market opportunities created through growth.

We are currently carrying out extensive research with businesses to inform the work of the Black Country Skills Factory, a new employer-led education & training collaboration. Recently over 100 advanced manufacturing companies were interviewed, over half of whom expected to expand over the coming 12 months. Of those companies just under a third expected to recruit more staff in the next 12 months and a third of the companies that envisaged expanding thought they would need new premises. Over half said that access to business support would help their businesses grow.

There are 677,800 people of working age living in the Black Country, of which 22% are qualified to NVQ Level 4+ compared to a national average of 34%. 16% of residents have no qualifications, considerably higher than the national rate of 10%.

The Black Country LEP has a number of long term objectives in line with its vision to improve education and skills within the Black Country and reduce the existing skills barriers to business growth.

Research from our Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) has found there is a need to further develop the skills of the unemployed, current workforce and future workforce (including apprentices).

These objectives are explained in further detail in the following sections:

Apprenticeships

Upskilling the Workforce

Skills for Unemployed

Skills for Young People

BCLEP Board Lead: Professor Ian Oakes