Developing Skills for Business programme will be present at the Cornwall Skills Show 2019 which is held at Wadebridge Showground on 19^th March. The event which gives over 2000 secondary school students the opportunity to connect with local businesses and gain an insight on future opportunities, aims to bridge the gap of knowledge between education and employment. During the day the Developing Skills for Business team will be connecting with businesses who would like the opportunity to shape the future of skills training in the county.

The programme managed by The Cornwall College Group, aims to bring curriculum delivered in the county in line with the needs of employers through employer forums, feedback, surveys and sector co-ordination. The programme has a particular focus on the uptake of apprenticeships among SMEs. This wide reaching programme is funded by the European Social Fund to improve the relevance of education and training systems in response to the gaps in skills and training identified by businesses.  Developing Skills for Business is interested to hear from businesses from the following sectors:  Marine, Retail, Construction, Health & Social Care, Manufacturing, Digital, Hospitality, Agrifood, SMEs – Large company supply chain.

So far the programme has already covered a huge variety of Cornish business priorities – one of the projects run by Cornwall Marine Network is improving staff inductions to Water sports activity centres, whereas Cornwall Manufacturers Group is conducting a large scale sector-wide Training Needs Analysis- a chance for manufacturers to feed in to future training provision and ensure their talent pipeline. Pirate FM is working to establish the needs of media companies across the county and finding innovative ways to link industry with education including peer teaching and work placements. The agri-food sector is being led by Cornwall Food Foundation to co-ordinate a unified approach to advancing the thriving Cornish drinks industry.

Apprenticeships are also being reviewed by industry across the priority sectors – both course content and delivery is being considered and adjusted to make work-based learning fit for purpose.

To ensure a comprehensive and responsive approach across all the priority industries, the Developing Skills for Business programme has partnered with key industry leaders. For more information about sector specific activities and events, please refer to the partner organisation leading each sector: Cornwall Marine Network (Marine – Marine Tech, Retail) Cornwall Council (Construction, Health & Social Care), SBD Associates / Cornwall Manufacturers Group (Manufacturing) , Software Cornwall (Digital – Software), Digital Peninsula Network (Digital –  Wider sector), Pirate FM (Digital – Media), Cornwall Food Foundation (Hospitality, Agrifood), Cornwall Chamber of Commerce (SMEs – Large company supply chain).