SESSU - South East Sector Skills Unit

Bringing together an NTO hub at their headquarters in Guildford has been a flagship project for SEEDA (South East England Development Agency), the first of its kind in the UK, and could well become a role model for other Regional Development Agencies. As well as the general objective of engaging industry sectors and the wider NTO network in the delivery of their Regional Economic Strategy, SEEDAÕs specific objective is to produce a collaborative workforce that will have a big impact on how the messages from their Skills Action Plan are achieved and delivered to those who count.

Such was the birth of the South East Sector Skills Unit (SESSU). Eighteen months or so on, it comprises a few core NTOs (including e-skills, EMTA, Skillset, Lantra and CITB), led by NTO NC, and forms part of SEEDAÕs South East Village, alongside the University for Industry, Higher Education South East, the Learning & Skills Development Agency, the Association of South East Colleges (AOSEC), Skills Insight, Trade Partners UK, the Small Business Service, South East Arts and RAISE. With the huge concentration of high-tech companies around the M4 corridor, the IT sector is clearly very important to SEEDA, and our physical presence in the Village (albeit part-time) provides SEEDA and her partners with a hot-line to the vast amount of knowledge and expertise possessed by the e-skills team.

The first phase of our project concentrated on research Ð in addition to Labour Market Information, this involved finding out about as many of the IT-related projects and initiatives that were taking place across the region as possible, and providing SEEDA with a list of options to address the skills issues highlighted. One outcome from the project has been the much acclaimed Template, or Framework, which provides a common format for NTOs to present skills issues to SEEDA. Other RDAs are also welcoming its use.

We then produced a List of Options for SEEDA to look at, to address ICT skills shortages in the region, and engage local LSCs as appropriate.

Following on from this, SEEDA (and Berkshire LSC) provided support to the launch of e-skills NTOÕs IT4all Regional Action Programme which took place in Reading in September. This highly acclaimed " Hearing " excited much interest and produced a Stakeholder Action Plan for IT User skills in the South East region, which is now being taken forward. Various projects are under consideration - all will be revealed once final decisions are made!

A further aspect of this project is looking at high level ICT skills and a brainstorm event for key stakeholders took place in December. Results of this will then be taken to employers.

Contact : Helen Porter on or

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