The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Primary school children could be encouraged to decide what career they want when they grow up in a bid to provide the skills needed to fill jobs in Lincolnshire.
It is believed that around 200,000 people would be needed between 2014 and 2022 to fill vacancies to grow the county’s economy.
This could include up to 182,000 new jobs in the construction industry in the next four years to meet the need to build new houses, but there is currently a “significant shortfall” in the number of people training for these jobs.
The figures were provided to a recent meeting of Lincolnshire County Council’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee, when members discussed improving employment and skills in the county’s growing business sectors.
During the discussion members were told that 60 per cent of Lincolnshire businesses were planning on expanding and 30 per cent would be taking on more employees.
As a result there was a need to work with higher and further education providers to encourage young people to stay in the county to work, and to attract young people from outside of the area.
It was also important that schools and colleges were kept informed of what skills were needed to fill future gaps in the job market, so they could work to encourage young people to attain those skills.
This could be extended so children as young as 10 or 11 are encouraged to start thinking about long-term career aims, although members were told that careers advice in schools is currently “fragmented”.
The committee’s discussion centred on “skills” funding available within the county and the work being done through the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership to choose what additional training provision to buy.
Recently the county has been awarded £8.5million from the EU Leader programme, which was for rural businesses and community projects.
Members were told that the setting up of Local Enterprise Partnerships meant more influence locally on how additional funding was spent.
Council officers are already working with big employers within the county to identify what their training needs will be in the future.
Those discussions have led to the belief there will be an increasing requirement for a much higher level of skills.
