The Chamberlain News

WMCA launches productivity and skills commission

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has launched the third of the commissions it announced on being established, less than a month before a Mayor takes the chair at the authority. 

Chaired by Dr Andy Palmer, president and chief executive of luxury car maker Aston Martin Lagonda, the Productivity and Skills Commission will “provide impartial support and advice to the authority as it seeks to reduce unemployment, improve people’s job skills and secure better productivity.”

The commission aims to harness the expertise of prominent business people, technical specialists and academics. It was officially launched yesterday at the offices of PwC in Birmingham city centre.

The group will tackle the most challenging set of issues – productivity and skills – the subject of much discussion in the current mayoral election campaign.

Our goal as a region is to grow the economy beyond current projections and make our already world-class business base stronger and better still.

It’s no secret that there has been a skills and productivity gap in the UK and the West Midlands is no different, and while there is no single cause for this it’s vital we tackle it.

The commission will focus on identifying solutions to the region’s productivity shortfall, looking to the future and not dwelling on the problems of the past.

By sharing their experience and best practice, the people of this region can help deliver practical yet achievable growth plans.

That’s why we are issuing this Call for Evidence so we can harness that knowledge and use it to help drive the West Midlands economy, equip people with the skills required by the employers of today and tomorrow and ultimately improve the region’s quality of life.

A WMCA Productivity Leadership Group, led by Dr Palmer and bringing together business leaders from the region’s three Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), will work to ensure plans to drive productivity are designed by and for local businesses.

The group will be advised by experts from across the West Midlands and central government including senior figures in the productivity and skills system and leading academics from the region’s universities. The Academic Lead is Nigel Driffield, Professor of International Business at Warwick Business School and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Regional Engagement at the University of Warwick.

The Productivity and Skills Commission is seen as a key element of WMCA’s 30-year devolution deal with Government.

The Commission aims to:

• Understand the component causes of the productivity challenge and the inter-relationships between them
• Make recommendations as to how these individual causes can be addressed
• Ensure appropriate plans are developed for the implementation of these recommendations and monitoring systems exist to review their effectiveness.

The WMCA says that the commission’s findings will form the basis for “a clear vision for productivity and skills in the West Midlands and an integrated plan, linked to the government’s emerging Industrial Strategy.”

It will also, the WMCA says, “build on the evidence base developed for the WMCA’s Strategic Economic Plan [SEP] – Making Our Mark – which sets out a series of ambitious goals to transform the regional economy with 500,000 new jobs, 20,000 additional businesses and at least 156,000 more people with level 4 qualifications or above.”

However, it is possible that an incoming Mayor will take a want take a more fundamental review of the WMCA’s SEP and the associated transport, skills and land plans.

Andrew Cleaves, board director at Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and a member of the Productivity Leadership Group, said:

We welcome the aims of the commission to identify and understand the full extent of the productivity and skills challenges across the West Midlands.

It is vital to explore this inter-relationship, particularly in key sectors and for local businesses, so we can create the necessary environment to create jobs and economic growth.

The delivery of both the WMCA’s and the GBSLEP’s Strategic Economic Plans will be strengthened by the findings of the commission, enabling us to foster stronger conditions for growth.

Stewart Towe, chair of the Black Country LEP, added:

Across the West Midlands we have examples of good productivity driven by businesses but equally we have challenges.

Skills, along with capital investment, innovation and finding new markets is of particular importance to the Black Country, as we strive to build a relevant talent pool.

This commission will play an important part in our thinking, ensuring that we not only work collaboratively and progressively across the region but work effectively to drive inclusive growth.

Jonathan Browning, chairman of the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP (CWLEP), said:

Improving skills is vital to the region’s productivity, long-term prosperity and growth and is a key priority in Coventry and Warwickshire’s and the WMCA’s Strategic Economic Plans.

We are pleased to be working together with the WMCA, and other key partners, to target areas where there is potential to boost productivity, increase employment and ultimately continue to tackle the widening skills gap.

We welcome the launch of this new strategy and look forward to working together with our partners to move it forward to support the growth of the region.

Call for Evidence submissions should be emailed to this address. The closing date for receipt of written evidence is May 31, 2017.

Pic: Dr Andy Palmer (left), president and chief executive of Aston Martin Lagonda and Nick Page, chief executive of Solihull Council.