Regional Skills for Productivity Alliance (RSPA)
17 July 2009
The government’s National Skills Strategy – 21st Century Skills (2003) announced the formation of Regional Skills Partnerships (RSPs) to maximise the contribution that skills make to productivity. SEEDA has led the development of the South East Regional Skills Partnership (the RSPA) since its inception in 2003.
The RSPA brings together 20 partner organisations, including employer representative organisations and providers of learning and skills provision. SEEDA, by leading the Partnership, brings these partners together to develop and deliver training solutions to meet the needs of businesses.
Over the past five years the RSPA has delivered several flagship programmes, including:
The Action for Business College programme, which created a quality standard for staff development programmes. 26 colleges have now achieved this standard. An independent evaluation found that, in 2004-5, the first 6 Action for Business Colleges:
- Increased fee income from employers by 35% to over £7 million
- Increased the number of employer clients by 26% to 6,676
- Increased the number of employers receiving customised courses by 51% to over 1000
- Increased the number of employees receiving training by 18% to 19,719
The Regional Skills Brokerage (RSB) model, which worked as a precursor to Train-to-Gain. The RSB created a region-wide brokerage model that would provide a single point of access to SMEs for objective information, advice and on workforce development and skills, and was instrumental in the securing of a £15m three year Train to Gain contract by the RSPA partners.
Six Local Skills for Productivity Alliances (LSPAs), the ‘local arms’ of the RSPA. The LSPAs co-ordinate, with partners, the delivery of employer-led training programmes within the sub-regions. During 2007/08, fifteen LSPA-supported initiatives resulted in gross outputs of 385 people assisted towards getting a job, 779 businesses assisted to improve their performance and 378 people assisted in terms of their skills development.
For more information please contact our press office
Tel: 01483 470155
