Creating the skills for Digital Britain

Our work with e-skills UK is central to the support we provide our members in developing their skills and broadening their horizons. e-skills UK is one of 25 sector skills councils, licensed by the Government as the Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology.  e-skills UK works on behalf of employers to ensure the UK has the technology skills it needs to succeed in the global economy. By uniting employers, government and education, e-skills UK aims to address the skills-related issues no one organisation can solve on their own. e-skills UK's programmes seek to inspire and support the UK's current and future IT workforce.

Why do we work with e-skills UK?

There are a number of reasons for the Connect Sector to work with e-skills UK. 

Firstly, it is an opportunity to influence directly the quality of the UK's ICT skills strategy, National Occupational Standards and units & qualifications which underpin and verify training meets employer and learner needs (such as the training which will be signposted from the emerging National Skills Academy for IT to support IT professionals and the ITQ for IT users). Connect does this through representation on e-skills UK's Board which enables direct input to e-skills UK strategy and active participation in the design of the structure and objectives of e-skills UK's sector solutions and programmes.

For example, the Connect Sector, together with other unions, gave important contributions and support to the Union-led paper developed with e-skills UK, entitled "Accessing Affordable ICT Introductory Training" which identified 7 million workers in the UK have deficiencies in IT user skills. The paper has been presented at the TUC conference for all unions and SSCs on November 11, 2008 and subsequently used by the unions, supported by e-skills UK, to inform proposed future plans.

By working with e-skills UK, we are more able to support their members and improve their employability through increasing relevant skills needed for employment. We do this by providing access to e-skills UK's latest Labour Market Information (LMI), providing information about training opportunities and sharing knowledge of the sector from the perspective of employers.

e-skills UK produce a number of complimentary useful and interesting publications including research reports and bulletins designed to keep people up-to-date on changes in the market and to help plan training and career development. To access the latest e-skills UK bulletins - entitled the e-skills Bulletin (covering the ICT workforce) and the Telecoms Bulletin, click on the link on the right of this page. 

For further information and to subscribe to the e-skills Bulletin and Telecoms Bulletin (free of charge!), please visit the e-skills UK website which is linked from the right hand side of this page. 

Key employers within the IT and Telecoms sector are represented on e-skills UK's Industry Boards.  Having a good working relationship with e-skills UK allows the union to enter into and continue a dialogue on all aspects of ICT skills and training issues. By e-skills UK and unions working together on strategy, projects and supporting events, the profile of ULRs is increased in the workplace. 

During the current economic recession, the learning and skills agenda carries a positive message and helps to bring the industrial and learning sections of unions together.