A new pilot project, which aims to meet the needs of employers, skills providers, careers advisors and learners across Swansea, has received £129,740 Welsh Government funding.
The project, which is a joint initiative by partners within the Swansea Regeneration Area (SRA) Fund, involves developing an easy-to-use, electronic E-Portal, which will contain information about learning provisions within the Swansea area.
It will help the various target audiences by identifying skills opportunities for all learners; including prospective job seekers, who are not currently in employment.
Informing employers about which education providers can assist in supplying skills needed and where they can be delivered to help up-skill the existing workforce will also be part of the e-portal.
The pilot, funded by the Welsh Government’s Regeneration Area programme, will initially run for 12 months, launching in September 2011.
Speaking about the pilot project, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage Huw Lewis said: “I’m pleased that we have been able to support this pilot project.
“The e-portal will be different to other websites and information sources because it will offer valuable information in one place for learners, education providers, employers and career advisors.”
The first six months of the pilot project will be spent developing the tool and gathering the necessary data and information, before it’s fully accessible when it goes live in February 2012.
The remaining half of the project will look at testing its effectiveness and usefulness as well as providing an opportunity to identify any possible areas of improvement – with an overall aim of rolling the system out regionally across south west Wales.
The funding for the e-portal pilot project follows a successful bid by the City and County of Swansea (CCS) and the Economic Delivery Team – on behalf of the Regional Learning Partnership – South West Wales (RLPSWW), which formed in 2007. Both will support the project, which will create three new jobs, two of which will be based within CCS, and one at the RLPSWW’s Parc-y-Scarlets office-base, in Llanelli.
City and County of Swansea Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor Mike Day, said: “The e-portal pilot is a great tool that will aid all learners, who are looking to get new skills, as well as assisting employers in finding out what types of skills currently exist and how they can access further training in these skills.”
The RLPSWW, which is part-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), through the Welsh Government, is transforming the way employers and education providers’ work together to benefit learners across the south west Wales region – including Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea.
Carmarthenshire County Council Director of Regeneration and Leisure, and RLPSWW’s Strategy Group Chairman Dave Gilbert added: “The idea for the e-portal was identified by partners within the RLPSWW in its early days, and it will sit alongside the RLPSWW’s existing Regional Learning and Skills Observatory (RLSO), which is a tool aimed at improving access to robust local data and intelligence, for learning, skills and the labour market through a single interactive website.”
For further details call the RLPSWW team on 01554 742430 or visit www.rlpsww.org.uk.
