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Tourism Skills Network South East

 Sue Gill, Head of Skills and Training, Tourism South East, writes:


The visitor economy is one of the region’s key economic drivers. Its social and
economic impact is massive. SEEDA estimates the potential for 10 per cent growth in the sector over the next decade. Alternative forecasts for the "cultural sector" suggest double this figure. However, growth can only happen if the sector has the right people, with the right
skills to provide the right quality of product.


This is made difficult because the labour market is tight with acute competition for
workers. Around 60 per cent of tourism businesses are currently reporting skills
gaps. An influx of overseas workers is helping to fill gaps, but ultimately without a
co-ordinated and focused intervention to raise standards and bring new people into
the industry, problems will deepen.


Considerable progress has already been made to tackle some of these issues through
the establishment in 2004 of the Tourism Skills Network South East. The Network is
led by Tourism South East through funding from SEEDA and supported by People 1st.
It is based on models of the South West and North West. Both of these receive in
excess of £500,000 a year of core Regional Development Agency funding to achieve
their objectives.

In the South East , with SEEDA core investment , the Tourism Skills Network has, in only 18 months, achieved many of the same outcomes by securing the commitment of sub-regional partners, including LSCs, Business Links, CoVEs, Colleges and local authorities.


The Network provides a sound foundation for the delivery of region-wide
approaches to learning and skills. It is the driving force for the delivery of regional
and sub-regional tourism skills strategies and the glue which binds the multitude of
support agencies which have an impact on tourism.


The Sub-Regional Co-ordinator role involves:

  • delivering the priorities of the regional and sub-regional skills strategies
  • securing commitment from support agencies
  • acting as a single point of contact
  • providing and produce resources which focus on tourism specific skills needs
  • understanding and communicate demand and supply side needs
  • encouraging participation in training/workforce development
  • building and gather intelligence on current and future needs and make this
    accessible to support agencies
  • encouraging the spread of best practice and sharing of materials from a variety of
    sources


At a regional level the Co-ordinator role involves:

  • undertaking national and regional liaison with SEEDA, LSCs, Sector Skills Councils,
    GOSE, Awarding Bodies, other Skills Networks, DCMS, providers and CoVEs/Action
    for Business Colleges
  • being a lobby for tourism, influencing funding and skills development programmes
    advising on, accessing and sourcing funding streams for delivery of specific
    tourism-related activities at regional and local level
  • creating the foundations for a support structure which will deliver the region’s
    ambitions for a skilled, motivated and customer-focused tourism workforce leading
    up to the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games


The network of Co-ordinators help to deliver priorities identified by the Regional
and Local Skills Alliances. They have strong employer and provider links and are
plugged into industry need at all levels. This gives them the unique ability to
develop and maintain employer and partner engagement so that they can shape and
develop customer-responsive provision. The aim is to facilitate a more joined-up skills offer for the industry, thus increasing take-up of learning. This will in turn lead to an improvement in business productivity and competitiveness.


In the past the tourism sector has been very lethargic in its approach to learning
and skills, however, since the Network has been set up, 900 businesses have become
engaged in activities resulting in over 3,000 participants taking up training of one
sort or another.


The impending 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games brings fresh impetus to
finding solutions to skills gaps. Whilst businesses in the South East are likely to be
principal beneficiaries, there needs to be a co-ordinated and sector-specific
approach to ensure the best use is made of the limited resources available.