2009 Skills Assessment for local organisations and their sub-regions

Improving connections between local and regional evidence and policy will be crucial to the success of the forthcoming Regional Skills Strategy.

This was one message from delegates at yesterday’s dissemination event for the Observatory’s Regional Skills Assessment 2009.

A mix of Local Authority officers, higher education representatives and policy officers investigated how the extensive research undertaken by the Observatory can be used by local authorities and other organisations to plan major pieces of work such as Local Economic Assessments.

As the Skills Assessment will also inform work at regional level, including the forthcoming Regional Skills Strategy and Strategy for the West Midlands, the research can help forge links between the local and regional tiers of strategy and policy making.

Electronic marketplaces: a way to tackle worklessness?

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have just published a think-piece on electronic markets (pdf, 1.09mb) by Wingham Rowan, project director of Slivers-of-Time.

The underlying premise is simple: there are plenty of people who would like to work, but can’t commit to regular hours because of family commitments or recurring medical conditions.

There are also lots of businesses which could benefit from hiring people for an hour or two at a time at short notice, without all of the overheads associated with traditional recruitment agencies.

Slivers-of-Time working is designed to connect the two using online electronic marketplaces—a sort of ‘eBay for jobs’—in a way that could help ease workless people back into the workforce and supply businesses with a flexible pool of vouchsafed, accredited labour.

Environmental technologies skills in the West Midlands seminar roundup

The Observatory held an event on 20th January 2010 to present findings from their environmental technologies skills review, which determined:

• The relative importance of these industries to the regional economy and the profile of the workforce by gender, ethnicity, age and qualification attainment
• Key developments in the sector, potential market opportunities and drivers of skills change
• Current and potential labour and skill needs and any gaps and shortages
• Investment in training and up-skilling by employers
• The use of publicly funded, private sector and internally run training and any gaps or weaknesses in provision
• Recommendations and actions to address any issues identified

Consultation on making Ordnance Survey mapping data freely available

Ian Austin, Regional Minister for the West Midlands and Communities Minister, outlined proposals at the end of December 2009 on how to make Ordnance  Survey mapping data freely available, so that the data can be re-used in innovative applications and products.

Communities and Local Government launched a consultation on 23 December 2009, Policy options for geographic information from Ordnance Survey, on which Ordnance Survey datasets can be made freely available to support digital innovation and democratic accountability.

You can view the consultation PDF here or use this online form to tell the government what you think.

The deadline for consultation responses is 17 March 2010.

OS data is used heavily here in the Observatory and by partner organisations. It’d be interesting to hear what you think and the issues you’re feeding back in the consultation. Do let us know in the comments.

Observatory map featured in top 10 government data visualisations and applications

An interactive map produced by the Observatory has been featured in The Guardian’s top 10 government data visualisations and applications.

This map shows the proportion of the working age population claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in each local authority in the West Midlands. You can also compare data for each local authority with the West Midlands and UK averages.

The map is based on the latest employment and unemployment data released monthly by the Office for National Statistics. The Observatory analyses this data as part of its work in monitoring the impact of the recession on the West Midlands.

As well as local authority, we also show the data in maps for:

• Ward level in West Midlands
• West Midlands Rural Regeneration Zone

The 10 data visualisations and applications were highlighted by the Guardian Datastore on the same day the government publicly launched the data.gov.uk site. This new site aims to unlock innovation and encourage data-led decisions by opening up public sector data for reuse in innovative applications and websites.

Black Country Consortium seeks researchers and Head of Intelligence

The Black Country Consortium are currently advertising for a Head of Intelligence and two researchers to join their team.

The closing date for applications for both posts is 29th January 2010.

Young people in Birmingham and West Midlands go for Creative & Media Diploma

Recent data released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families shows that learner participation in the new 14–19 Diplomas in the West Midlands is focused on the Creative & Media course so far.

The 14–19 Diploma is a new qualification which takes two years to complete. Young people can do it at school or college and it combines practical experience with class learning, and is focused on a specific vocational area.

Third Sector National Learning Alliance membership

The Third Sector National Learning Alliance (TSNLA) is the new national alliance of voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises involved in learning and skills.

The TSNLA aims to stimulate, inform and listen to the views of third sector learning and skills providers and work constructively across government and key stakeholders to influence policy.

TSNLA will also undertake or commission research for and about the third sector, and gather, analyse and circulate information relevant to the third sector.

On migration and economic migrants in the West Midlands

A migrant worker is someone who immigrates to another country to seek employment and improve his/her financial position. More and more people are becoming migrant workers, shifting from one country to another, either to seek work or progress to a better job.

Economic globalisation has triggered a rapid increase in cross-border movement of both goods and people, especially over the last two decades or so and human capital has become more flexible than ever. Foreign workers are increasingly common in certain countries (for example, in some Western European countries or the US).

Migrant workers are often concentrated within particular local economies, where they are helping to address labour and skills shortages in key sectors.

According to a survey released by Gallup (November 2009) around 16% (700 million adults) of the world’s population would like to permanently move to another country. If this happened the number of global migrants would more than quadruple.

There are about 686,000 official migrant workers in England at the moment (this is about 1.3% of the total population).

West Midlands innovation fund delivers eleven-fold return on investment and brings jobs to region

An independent evaluation of the Technology Transfer Fund (TTF2) (pdf, 431kb) has underlined the value that the SME support fund has played in regional economic growth.

The fund was launched by Advantage West Midlands in 2005 to assist development of small and medium sized science and technology businesses within the Central Technology Belt, the high technology corridor that follows the A38 from Birmingham, through Worcester, to Malvern. TTF2 offered grants of up to £25,000 to more than 150 local companies.

The report (pdf, 431kb) produced by ekosgen on behalf of Advantage West Midlands found that the TTF2 realised more than £25 million of additional net turnover for the businesses it supported, and also created an additional 47 jobs during the two year project lifespan.

Tools and applications for visualising data

There’s a huge resource of links to tools, applications and services for visualising data collected here at visualisation magazine.

Oneplace – how are your public services performing?

The 9th December 2009 saw the launch of a new website – Oneplace –  providing detailed information on how good public services are in your local area. The site includes independent information about how councils, police, health services and others are tackling some of the major issues in every area in England.

The purpose of the website is to use information gathered for Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA) to try and help the public find out more about the quality of public services in their area.

West Midlands employers make the Stonewall Top 100

Four West Midlands employers are featured in the 2010 Stonewall Top 100 Employers, showcasing Britain’s best employers for gay staff.

At number 19, West Midlands Police is the region’s top-rated employer for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people, and there is a first appearance in the top 100 for Warwickshire County Council (no. 88).

The region’s other top 100 ranked employers are Staffordshire Police (34) and Birmingham City Council (60), both of which have featured in previous years.

The top performing industrial sector is professional services, followed by police authorities and central government.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Despite a positive performance in the last quarter of 2009, the Cultural Observatory’s latest recession snapshot (pdf, 311kb) suggests the West Midlands’ cultural sector is facing a period of ‘funding uncertainty’.

Evidence highlighted in the paper suggests that while many local cultural organisations remain optimistic about the short-term stability of core funding sources, perception of funding security is low compared to confidence levels pre-recession.

In the Cultural Observatory’s own economic survey with local cultural organisations, 72% of respondents stated that they were ‘less optimistic’ about the stability of core funding sources compared to 2007.

Against a backdrop of funding concerns, the research shows that the cultural sector continued to see increases in numbers of customers through the door in the last three months of 2009, building on the unusually high increase in footfall seen over the summer.

Cultural sector recession survey – can you help?

The West Midlands cultural sector recession survey for the October–December 2009 quarter is now live.

If you work in the region’s cultural sector we’d appreciate your help in getting the word out.