Coventry and Warwickshire’s future workforce needs will be under the spotlight this month when business and education leaders meet to discuss the issue at a dedicated skills forum.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Skills Summit will be attended by around 120 leading figures from the business and education sectors.
Organisers Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Partnership (CSWP) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) hope the forum will become a bi-annual event.

CSWP works with private, public, voluntary and education organisations to ensure all sectors of the area’s economy work together to provide a better quality of life for people in Coventry and Warwickshire.

The forum will consider developments including the £60 million centre being built at Ansty by telecoms firm Ericsson, along with the relocation of Severn Trent and education agency QCA to the city centre, which are expected to generate around 2,000 jobs.

Kim Thorneywork, of the LSC, said: “The skills summit will provide a golden opportunity for leaders of education and learning to meet with key employers to discuss the challenges we face in giving the workforce the skills to compete in a global economy.

“We believe that Coventry and Warwickshire can compete not only nationally but internationally if we commit to training and development not only for young people but also for adults already in the workforce.”

Brian Woods-Scawen, chairman of CSWP, said the future outlook was very positive for the sub-region’s workforce. But he warned that the skills necessary were changing all the time.

“The future is exciting in terms of the level of investment in new industries and new technologies coming into the area and we need to ensure that we have the workforce to fulfil those roles,” he said.

“Investors need a very skilled and flexible workforce which is capable of working in new ways to take advantage of businesses which now have an increasingly global outlook.

“The summit will enable us to recognise the scale of the opportunities we have in the future and the prize on offer for Coventry and Warwickshire as we work towards taking advantage of that,” he added.

The forum takes place on June 23 at Oak Tree Court on Harry Weston Road in Binley.