Agenda item

o  Presentation on LSEC’s green projects update

Andrew Cox, Group Director of Strategic Growth and Partnerships – London South East Colleges (“Group Director”) provided an overview of the Local London Green and Digital Strategic Projects.

The Group Director informed members that LSEC were working on the Green Project in partnership with Local London and its associated boroughs. Two further projects had been secured:

-  GLA funded: Local London Green and Digital Mayoral Academy (£237k)

A sub-regional project which would collaborate across 11 further education providers, 9 London boroughs and 30+ employers in the Local London region to ensure the GLA had a central delivery mechanism to improve its Green and Digital offer.

-  DfE funded: Local London Green Academies Partnership (£2.46m)

A sub-regional project which aimed to increase inward investment across the Local London region. Through an intensive capital and revenue investment model would see 13 further education providers collaborate to improve the regions Green skills offer.

These strategic projects were intrinsically linked with the Local Skills Improvement Plans, which were implemented under the Skills & Post-16 Education Act 2022. This was designed to put employers and local skills needs at the centre of post-16 education and colleges had a responsibility to make training and skills development more responsive to the needs of the local labour market. The Local London & Green Skills Academy and Local London Green Academies Partnership were centred around designing courses aligned to meet current and future skills needs across the Green and Digital sectors.

The Group Director advised that, over the two projects, partnership engagement included 3 Further Education (FE) provider; over 30 employers supporting were the projects; 11 Local Authorities; and 5 Chambers of Commerce. To develop this further, a Green & Digital Advisory Board had been established. The membership included key colleges and training providers to ensure the provision and initial foundations were right, and this would later develop into an Employment Board.

In terms of the progress made to date, this included:

-  Commissioning industry consultants to review each Colleges estate, curriculum and staffing teams;

-  Work had begun on building and fitting out 8 green laboratories across Local London, focusing on retrofitting, heat pumps, EV and solar PV (ready for September 2023);

-  In the process of scheduling executive/SMT training for College leaders across the region;

-  Begun the development of new curriculums to support the incoming green skills crisis;

-  Cross working across a variety of sub regional boards to ensure consistent knowledge exchange (Retro-fit London, Green New Deal, Local London Employment and Skills Board);

-  Green and Digital training delivered to over 1,000 learners;

-  Exploration of a Green and Digital Metaverse to improve accessibility to Green and Digital training; and,

-  Supporting a variety of events to improve employer engagement.

A visiting Member considered that the building and fitting out of 8 green laboratories seemed to be ambitious with the grant awarded. The Group Director said that there were 8 local green laboratories located between Enfield and Bromley, and there were three different investment levels – four colleges would receive £300k, two would receive £100k and two would receive £50k. It was ambitious; however they were not building brand new spaces – they would instead be refurbishing spaces within the existing college campuses. For example, LSEC had been allocated £300k to develop a renewables academy at its Bromley campus – £40k was allocated for refurbishing the existing space identified, with the remaining £260k earmarked for equipment. This would enable an initial provision to be established and, when they worked with the consultants, they would consider future needs.

The visiting Member further questioned what work had been undertaken to identify the skills gaps within the borough. The Group Director said that initially they had gathered national data to understand the general picture. There had also been two reports on London’s green and digital research which were used to guide the need across the region. A project would be undertaken to do further research to understand the specific level of local need. The visiting Member highlighted that there was a gap of around 400 engineers at London Biggin Hill Airport (LBHA) which needed to be addressed. The Group Director said that they could look at other wider engineering pathways and he was aware that work was underway to discuss possible options with LBHA and Bombardier.

Lee Thomas, Fairlight Group highlighted that, in recent years, the green agenda had become an important consideration. Lending institutions could exclude businesses from the market if premises did not tick all the boxes. It was noted that only a third of what was required would be coming on to the market. Training was imperative as the green agenda would remain for years to come.

The Chairman thanked the Group Director for his update to the Partnership.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.