Giving South West Wales Business a Stronger Voice on Skills

South West Wales is preparing for a new generation of jobs in energy, infrastructure and advanced industry, and the region now has the opportunity to build the workforce alongside them.

Floating Offshore Wind in the Celtic Sea, the Celtic Freeport, hydrogen, carbon capture, grid upgrades and advanced manufacturing are creating demand for skills on a scale that will shape the regional economy for years to come. Around 7,000 jobs are expected to be linked to Floating Offshore Wind, with a further 11,500 within the Freeport zones alone.

Skills planning must keep pace with that investment. Workforce development needs to begin at the master-planning stage, with employers, colleges, universities and public bodies working together long before projects reach procurement or recruitment.

That is where the Regional Learning and Skills Partnership (RLSP) for South West Wales has a central role. We are directly linked with the Swansea Bay City Deal and work across the public and private sectors, bringing together employers, colleges, universities and other partners to strengthen skills in areas including manufacturing, digital, construction, energy, health and social care.

Our purpose is to bridge gaps that too often slow progress. At its most practical, that could mean a college knowing it has ten newly qualified welders and being able to connect them quickly with employers that need those skills. Conversations of that kind already happen, but not consistently enough, and they still take place in silos.

The Partnership is there to join those conversations together. But collaboration on its own is not enough. It has to lead to action.

The RLSP is embedded within regional governance structures, including the Corporate Joint Committees and City Deal arrangements, which gives it a responsibility to bring accountability into the process. When everyone around the table has a stake in the outcome, collaboration becomes more than an exchange of views.

This is particularly important for SMEs and microbusinesses, which make up the overwhelming majority of businesses in Wales. Smaller firms often find it harder to develop their workforce continuously – not because they lack ambition, but because they do not have dedicated teams to navigate training, funding and qualifications.

An employer may have someone in the business who wants to develop or change direction without knowing which opportunities are available. In my own business, we had an employee who had worked as a carpenter but could no longer continue because of the physical demands of the job. At the age of 44, he retrained as an energy assessor and moved into a completely different career.

That example shows why skills development cannot focus only on school leavers. It has to include the existing workforce, people who need to reskill and those whose careers may change as industries and technologies develop.

Our cluster groups are a crucial part of this work. They bring together employers and representatives from further education, higher education and the public sector across areas such as construction, digital, manufacturing, energy, health and social care.

Those conversations can be direct and, at times, challenging. Public and private sector organisations often face similar problems – but from different viewpoints. Employers need to engage and explain what they require, while education and public bodies need to provide clear information about what can be delivered and how.

The clusters give businesses a route into those discussions. Their chairs also sit on the RLSP board, allowing information to flow between sectors and regional decision-makers. That helps us act as the voice of business to the public sector and Welsh Government, while also bringing new ideas and opportunities from colleges, universities and public bodies back to employers.

This intermediary role is especially valuable because the current system can be difficult to navigate. Apprenticeships, Personal Learning Accounts, degree apprenticeships and other training routes exist, but the process can appear unnecessarily complex to an employer who is already occupied with running a business.

Accessing skills support should not require hours of research. An employer should be able to understand quickly which courses are available, who provides them, whether funding is available and who to contact. The RLSP and its clusters can help demystify that system, but the wider process also needs to become simpler.

Speed is another concern. Fast-moving industries may need workers within nine months, while parts of the system still operate around academic years, qualification approvals and short funding cycles. The framework is agile in places, but not yet agile enough as a whole.

Funding arrangements of one to three years also make it difficult to plan for projects extending towards 2030 and beyond. Greater long-term certainty would allow colleges to commission training pathways earlier, invest in specialist equipment and give employers more confidence when planning recruitment.

South West Wales has already demonstrated what coordinated regional skills investment can achieve. The Skills and Talent Programme has supported 11,246 people into higher-level skills, delivered 3,391 apprenticeships, created 123 new courses and worked with more than 1,000 employer partners across seven major economic growth programmes.

There is still a significant gap between what the economy needs and what the skills system can deliver, with hard-to-fill vacancies remaining high in engineering, health, skilled trades and digital roles. Closing that gap will require employers, providers and policymakers to move beyond consultation and commit to delivery.

Regional skills partnerships are the connective infrastructure between investment, employers, training and local people. We have proven what we are capable of; with longer-term backing we can help ensure that the transformation under way in South West Wales creates not only new projects, but accessible and lasting careers across the region.

Dean talks about this and more on episode 9 of the People & Skills podcast. Listen here: