Our approach

OxLEP Skills aims to ensure that every person who lives and works in the county is equipped with the skills they need in order to maximise their potential.

Oxfordshire is the UK’s engine for innovation: ground breaking research and development (R&D) is driving the creation of new, dynamic businesses, hungry to grow and scale up; cutting edge products and services are solving the challenges in healthcare, mobility, energy and communications; and commercialisation of these new ideas is delivering manufacturing and supply chain opportunities across the length and breadth of our country.

Our Local Industrial Strategy (published in September 2019) set out an ambitious plan to build on Oxfordshire’s strong foundations and world-leading assets, driving Oxfordshire’s ambition to become a top-three global innovation ecosystem by 2040. To achieve this, we will continue to need a highly-skilled, adaptable and innovative workforce and to ensure that they, and future generations, have the skills that businesses need and value.

OxLEP aims to maximise the full potential of each and every person who lives and works in the county, ensuring that they are equipped with the very best skills which can provide them with the capability to secure the new employment opportunities generated across the innovation ecosystem.

The role of OxLEP Skills includes:

Ensuring that we develop a strategic and coordinated approach to skills support activities which are aligned to Oxfordshire’s economic growth ambitions
Supporting employers to access the right talent and skills in order to grow and stay in Oxfordshire
Inspiring and preparing young people for the fast-changing world of work
Enabling local people to better access job opportunities arising from the impacts of large-scale infrastructure development
Working collaboratively with partners to support and deliver local skills initiatives

We are supported to achieve this by our skills advisory panel.

Oxfordshire Skills Board / Skills Advisory Panel:

The OxLEP Skills agenda is supported and delivered by the Oxfordshire Skills Board (OSB) operating as sub-group of, and under the rules of governance of OxLEP.

OSB pre-dates OxLEP and has for over a decade convened key stakeholders and communities of interest to develop a strategic and coordinated approach to skills support activities aligned to Oxfordshire’s economic growth ambitions, as articulated in the Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy and the extant skills strategy.

It was from these firm foundations that OSB assumed the responsibilities of the Department of Education’s (DfE) Skills Advisory Panel (SAP) in early 2019 – a natural evolution of the group and an endorsement of OSB’s activities.

OSB draws representatives from relevant local key stakeholder groups, including (but not limited to); public and private sector employers, further education, higher education, local authorities, schools, private training providers, and other key stakeholders appropriate to the remit. Members are visionary independent thinkers who have a shared ambition to drive change.

Local Skills Report and Plan:

The Skills Advisory Panel Local Skills Report and Plan complements and supports the ambitions and priorities of our Economic Recovery Plan over the short term and the Local Industrial Strategy over an extended period, to drive recovery and economic renewal, whilst building a resilient and inclusive economy for the future.

Download the OxLEP Local Skills Report and Plan March 2022

Download the OxLEP 2022 Local Skills Report and Plan Annex A and B

Download the OxLEP 2022 Local Skills Report and Plan Executive Summary

We commissioned a data review and report on the skills, employment and enterprise of Oxfordshire’s ethnic minority communities in order to inform the Local Skills Report and Plan. You can download the full report, a summary of key findings and bitesize version below.

Download the full Skills, Employment and Enterprise of Oxfordshire’s Ethnic Minority Communities Report

Download a Summary of Key Findings from the Report

Download a Biteseize Version of the Report

WATCH: 'Skills, Employment and Enterprise of Oxfordshire’s Ethnic Minority Communities webinar'