Health & Life Sciences Workforce Development Partnership

The first Health and Life Sciences Workforce Development Partnership meeting took place recently at Owen Mumford’s new manufacturing facility in Witney, Oxfordshire.  These partnerships are part of the Local Skills Improvement Plans for Oxfordshire and Berkshire. They aim to meet employer skills needs by bringing employers and education & training providers together and encouraging and enabling collaboration and partnership working between them. They are facilitated by the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Skills Unit.

There were presentations from the Office of Life Sciences, Moderna, Activate Learning, Oxfordshire & Berkshire LEPs, and STEM Returners. These covered national and local skills needs, current and future education and training provision, skills bootcamp programmes, and help for career break returners looking to get back into STEM careers. The presentations encouraged good discussions around skills needs and what more can be done to meet these. This included actions around the creation of more opportunities for new entrants to the sector and those trying to return to it; mentoring and work insights for 16-24 year olds; the development of new education and training provision to help meet the skills and recruitment needs of local businesses. These quarterly meetings are also designed to build links and ongoing collaboration across the region, so we can do more to meet these pressing needs and continue to help enable the growth of this very important sector for the region’s economy.