Sector Priorities Fund Pilot (SPFP)
This Welsh Government & ESF funded programme is designed to pilot strategic project activity with Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), in order to inform recommendations for, and effect a smooth transition to the 2011 Sector Priorities Fund identified in “Skills that Work for Wales”. It will ensure the delivery of post-16 skills provision that is more responsive and aligned to the needs of employers.
Through this a range of pilot projects have been funded, details of which can be found by clicking here. All pilot projects will end in December 2011.
Additionally the SPFP programme has also funded 4 Sector Advocate posts and 4 Regional Provider Advocate Posts, 2 of which are NTfW staff.
Rachel Searle, South Wales and Andrew Dodge, South East Wales. Sector advocates work directly with SSC gaining knowledge of Sector Skills needs at national levels and have a pan Wales remit. Regional advocates work directly with the post 16 learning provider networks gaining knowledge of skills needs & learning networks at local level. Regional Provider Advocates are based in North Wales, Mid & South West Wales, South Wales and South East Wales regions. Advocates will be in post until March 2012, to maximize information gathering to inform project evaluation. See below for contact details of all regional and sector advocates.
SPFP Advocate Role
Key Advocate Objectives
Facilitate development of strategic and sustainable partnerships between SSCs and training providers to-
- Ensure skills interventions targeted at employers become more demand-responsive in the long-term, and are based on the priorities articulated by SSCs.
- Complete evaluation at the end of the SPFP Programme, to measure the extent to which partnerships have developed and if any impact has been made on ESF/mainstream funded programme delivery.
Advocate Roles
- Success & sustainability of SPFP reliant on development & maintenance of effective dialogue between SSC and Training providers
- Sector advocates will work directly with SSC gaining knowledge of Sector Skills needs at national levels
- Regional advocates work directly with post 16 provider network gaining knowledge of skills needs & learning network at local level
- See SPFP Advocate Contact List for contact details of the 4 sector advocates and 4 regional advocates and the areas they cover.
- Derive intelligence on employer demand for skills at a sector/local level
- Broker dialogue between SSCs and training providers on employer demand for skills with a view to:
– creating shared understanding/agreement of national & local priorities for skills provision;
– mapping out an effective response to these priorities;
– monitoring and reviewing pilot project activity in order to analyse and feed in intelligence for the development of future policy/delivery; - Support providers in planning their delivery to more effectively align with skills priorities at a sector level by providing ongoing intelligence on employer demand and sharing of emerging lessons learned/best practice from SSC pilot project activity.
- Advocates also working to develop links between SPFP projects, ESF projects and mainstream funded projects in order ensure sustainability of projects once project funding has ended. A list of ESF funded projects linked to Skills development can be found in the Project Template Information Pack for European Funded Projects.
NTfW SPFP Advocates:
South Wales – Rachel Searle
E-bost: rachel.searle@ntfw.org – Mobile: 07425 621708
South East Wales – Andrew Dodge
E-bost: andrew.dodge@ntfw.org – Mobile: 07425 621707
Please click on the links below for SPFP related documents:
- SPFP Advocate Role – Presentation
- SPFP Advocate Contact List
- SPFP Project Summaries
- SPFP Programme Bulletin – Mar 2011 Final
- Project Template info pack for European funded projects
