eSkills Development

 

Putting this statistic into a more local context, it is reported that 170,000 individuals in Hampshire have skills levels at NVQ level 1 or below.  This despite a multiplicity of FE and Adult Education colleges and commercial providers offering both formal and informal learning opportunities and the statistic that 92% of jobs now involve ICT use.

 

It is clear from these statistics that equally as important to maintaining sustained economic growth (as well community well-being) is ensuring that everyone, everywhere has the right skills and the opportunity to access and exploit ICT.

 

The eHampshire Partnership supports the view that it is essential to have schools, communities and businesses working together to help make ICT skills a priority to make sure that each and every one of us has the opportunity to acquire these basic ‘skills for life’.

 

The eHampshire Partnership intends to play its part in making learning more accessible.  In particular it will encourage SMEs and increasingly Voluntary Community Organisations (VCOs) to use and equally importantly, to keep up to date with, ICT.

 

Recent SME sector research indicated that, after finance, ICT was the greatest concern to business owners with even the most essential tasks like back-ups and security solutions still not uppermost amongst business priorities.

 

With support and direction from the Learning and Skills Council, eHampshire business plan includes support for initiatives designed to:

 

This will be achieved over the next three years by effort designed to increase the profile of local ICT Training Partnerships, Public Access schemes like Havant’s ‘Everybody on-line’ and by better signposting to ICT Training Opportunities.