The North West Higher Level Skills Partnership (NW HLSP) is funded
by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as
part of their employer engagement activity and by the Northwest Regional
Development Agency (NWDA) as part of their higher level skills and workforce
development activity. The NW HLSP is led by the North West Universities
Association (NWUA), as the representative body of fourteen North West Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs), in partnership with NWDA, Government Office for the North West (GONW), the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Skills Funding Agency
(SFA) , the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs),
Business Link NW and the NW Provider Network. The HEFCE funded NW HLSP commenced
on 1st
October 2006 covering four sectors, an NWDA funded extension to this was
approved in July 2008 to cover three additional sectors, all priority areas for
the region. The NW HLSP will run until 31st March 2011 covering all seven
sectors and all Level 4+ provision.
The aim of the NW HLSP is to increase demand from employers for higher level
skills provision. The North West model is driven by demand and the encouragement
of employer investment in skills. Therefore the model is based on two aspects:
brokerage and the development of new provision which meets employer demand. The
NW HLSP activity is focused around seven employment sectors, as well as the Redundancy Response Fund, shown as priority
sectors for higher level skills in the NW Statement of Skills Priorities:
The brokerage activity is fully integrated with Business Link NW, as the
regional delivery agency for skills brokerage and therefore ensures a fully
integrated approach across the North West allowing employers to solve their
skills needs at all levels. The work of the NW HLSP ensures that the skills
brokerage offer includes HLS by providing seven sector specific Specialist
Advisors to support the brokers in liaising between employers and the HE sector.
The NW HLSP provided funding for the development of new demand led HE provision
in the seven sectors. Seven sector panels were set up involving the Sector
Skills Councils (SSCs) relevant to each of the HLSP sectors, NWDA, LSC and
Regional Cluster Organisations. These panels identified the higher level skills
priorities for each sector and then HE providers were asked to respond to these
priorities by developing a proposal for new provision in liaison with employers.
To date, 60 projects have been funded, developing HE courses at all levels from
HNCs and Foundation Degrees to Post Graduate Masters Level Provision. The
majority of these courses are offered as bite-sized pieces of learning, all of
which are credit rated and can be built up into a full qualification should the
employer or employee wish.
For further information on the NW HLSP and current activity please select the
section menus under the HLSP site tab.