The North East Local Enterprise Partnership commissioned Ortus in partnership with Qa Research to conduct a study with businesses working in these key sectors to identify skills needs, and use the findings to inform the North East Skills Advisory Panel’s work.
Established in 2019, the Skills Advisory Panel is a local partnership which aims to strengthen the link between public and private sector employers, local authorities, training providers, FE colleges and universities to help the North East LEP fulfil its local leadership role in the skills system by understanding current and future skills needs and labour market challenges.
We were commissioned to undertake 370 15-minute CATI surveys – 45 with businesses operating within the off-shore wind sector, 125 with businesses operating in the Health & Social Care sector and 200 surveys with businesses operating in the tourism sector. Quotas were applied to sizeband as well as sector. Qa completed 164 of the 370 surveys in March 2020, when interviews had to be paused due to the first Covid-19 lockdown. Interviews resumed in September 2020 and we were commissioned to complete an additional 100 surveys to understand skills needs and additional barriers resulting from the pandemic. In total we completed 470 interviews.
Our report is available on the North East Evidence Hub.