Skipton gets a skills makeover

Carol Smillie launches Skills Street

Residents in Skipton opened their doors to Carole Smillie in June to mark the launch of Skills Street, a national campaign from the LSC. The initiative aims to highlight the ever-increasing importance and benefits of improving skills by taking a typical street and measuring residents' skills levels and then offering them advice.

An expert panel - including television presenter, Carol Smillie, Craven College's assistant principal, Wes Johnson, and director of employer engagement, Alison Stone, the LSC's partnership director, Caroline O'Neill and Gail Gittins, NVQ and Apprenticeship manager from Superdrug, visited homes on Moorview Way in Skipton to assess the skills residents currently have and those which they feel they lack. The panel offered advice, highlighting the skills the residents may benefit from and suggesting local training providers – demonstrating how accessible modern learning can be.

Skills Street's residents, the Mulheron
family and the Ingham family; Carol Smillie,
the LSC's partnership director, Caroline
O'Neill, Gail Gittins, NVQ and apprenticeship
manager from Superdrug, Craven College's
assistant principal, Wes Johnson, and
director of employer engagement,
Alison Stone

Skipton's Skills Street was launched to coincide with the findings of research commissioned by the LSC which revealed the barriers people in Yorkshire and the Humber feel stand in the way of them learning an additional skill. More than a third (34%) of adults blame a lack of time, while a quarter (27%) of adults feel a lack of money is the main reason for them not learning a new skill. 15% of adults even said they felt they were too old to learn a new skill.

Interestingly, while time was the major barrier to learning for men across the country, with over 40% of male adults stating they didn't have the time to learn a new skill, over a third of all female respondents stated a lack of money as the major reason for them not taking up a new skill.

One of the main aims of Skills Street is to show people that learning a new skill is not as difficult as it may first appear and to showcase the variety of learning and funding options available including Apprenticeships and the Adult Learning Grant.

Caroline O'Neill, LSC partnership director, said: "These findings show that we have a responsibility to break down the barriers preventing people from learning new skills. Two out of three jobs in the future will require a higher level of skills and better qualifications. Indeed, in less than ten years, there will be very few unskilled jobs. Skills Street aims to kick-start the process and encourage people to fulfil their potential."

Craven College students

Carol Smillie, the television presenter and successful author who is helping to launch Skills Street, added: "I am delighted to be working on a project like Skills Street. As the world is changing, we all need skills – more so than ever before. People are often worried by the time it takes to learn a new skill, but a small investment in yourself can lead to a great reward, and remember, there may be funding to help with the cost – so check out the "In Our Hands" website.

If you are interested in learning a new skill, more information on different courses and details of funding opportunities can be found at http://www.lsc.gov.uk/inourhands

Click the link above to watch a podcast from the event.