Skills

The key objective of the Skills Programme is to work with partners to ensure that the North East economy has the necessary skills levels to compete globally in a high value added, knowledge based environment.

The North East spends nearly £2bn annually of public funding on education and skills. Our targeted interventions fit alongside and complement activity funded from other sources.

Differences in skills levels and the type of jobs available to highly skilled workers accounts for a major part of the gap in economic performance between English regions.

In order to transform North East England into a ‘knowledge driven high-skilled economy’, the Agency needs to stimulate the demand for, as well as the supply of, skills in the region.

Any focus on increasing the supply of skills needs to sit alongside work to promote innovation and encourage high value-added business activity, if mobile high-skilled workers are not to leave the region to seek employment. Similarly, gains made through programmes to reduce low skills and get more people back into work will not be sustained if local economies are unable to absorb and retain people seeking employment.

Supporting Documents and Downloads

Skills Pledge [pdf] (1.00 MB)

Skills Action Plan [pdf] (858 KB)