Skills Advisory Panel
The Oxfordshire Skills Advisory Panel bring together employers, skills providers and key local stakeholders to better understand and address the local skills agenda.
Skills Advisory Panels: the national context
Skills Advisory Panels (SAPs) bring together employers, skills providers and key local stakeholders to better understand and resolve skills mismatches at a local level. There are 36 SAPs across England as part of Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships.
In January 2021, DfE published its White Paper Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth, which set out a number of reforms aimed at putting employers more firmly at the heart of the skills system. The White Paper outlined plans to test in 2021-22, in a small number of areas, Local Skills Improvement Plans created by business representative organisations.
The White Paper committed to build on the work of SAPs to date. SAPs and their Local Skills Reports will continue as the DfE trailblazes Local Skill Improvement Plans and until any potential changes are made to a SAP’s remit and responsibilities.
The Department for Education (DfE) supports SAPs with grant funding primarily to produce high quality analysis of local labour markets and Local Skills Reports. These reports set out the local strengths and skills needs and how the SAP proposes its area addresses its key priorities. They aim to influence local partners and feed intelligence to central government, including the national-level Skills and Productivity Board (SPB).
Oxfordshire Local Skills Report and Plan
The Oxfordshire 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 our Local Skills Report and Plan
Download our Local Skills Report and Plan Annex A and B
Oxfordshire 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 (LIS) and the extant skills strategy.
It was from these firm foundations that OSB assumed the responsibilities of the Oxfordshire Skills Advisory Panel (SAP) in early 2019 – a natural evolution of the group and an endorsement of OSB’s activities.
OSB/SAP 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.
