ADULT EDUCATION BUDGET

Our vision is for the devolution of AEB to be ‘best in class’ of all devolved regions in England. We published our Local Industrial Strategy and Regional Skills Strategy which identifies the challenges and opportunities for increasing and spreading wealth and prosperity more evenly across the region.  Our strategic intent is to:

1. Improve life chances and increase the social mobility of all our residents
2. Improve prosperity for all by increasing productivity of our workforce through upskilling
3. Enable unemployed residents to reskill and gain good employment
4. Improve the quality of life through an enriching lifelong learning offer

We will achieve this by:

• Using AEB funding in our region to focus skills improvements for residents in Fenland, Peterborough and those wards in Cambridgeshire that are within the top 20% most deprived in England
• Increasing the number of adults qualified to Level 2 and 3. According to analysis by the Centre for Business and Economic Research, the gains for a Level 3 qualification equate to a 20% increase in average wages and a 14% increase in employment prospects.
• Supporting employers to invest in upskilling their workforce
• Working in partnership with providers and stakeholders to tailor the skills offer to local employers

Our response to the Covid-19 pandemic

• During the pandemic our providers worked hard to develop ways of delivering their training offers online, In line with the updated guidance from Government, we have now adapted to be able to offer you a mix of blended learning and face to face where appropriate and safe to do so. Please speak to your provider if you need support with a laptop or tablet device
• We are focussing AEB to support our regional response to redundancies. For free careers information, advice and guidance, please click here.

Partnership and Governance

With the AEB for our region now controlled locally through the Combined Authority, we are keen to ensure that residents and employers have a say on how we invest this funding.

Our Skills Committee chaired by Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, provides strong local governance and councillors from each district represent their area to ensure residents and businesses benefit from opportunities.  For your local member see the Skills Committee Membership page. Members of the public are welcome to join the Skills Committee as observers and can propose questions to Combined Authority officers and Committee members.

You can also contact us directly. We are always keen to hear from residents, learners, providers and employers, you can email: AEBDevolution@cambridgeshirepeterborough-ca.gov.uk

Collaboration, Co-design, and Flexibilities

Our approach is to work in partnership with our family of colleges and training providers. We value and support the wider role of colleges and providers as key parts of their communities, raising people’s aspirations and improving access to new skills.

We meet regularly with our colleges and providers to discuss performance and opportunities to increase the adult learning offer and improve. One of the benefits of devolution is that we can agree flexibilities to the funding rules for the benefit of our residents and businesses. These flexibilities allow us to meet new and changing adult skills demands from people and employers quickly and effectively. Every year, we consult on our flexibilities and encourage people to share their views.  Our Consultation findings can be found below as well as our current flexibilities.

Our Progress and Success

We are committed to a culture of continuous self-improvement under the Combined Authority’s Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. An independent evaluation of AEB is commissioned each year and reports and recommendations can be found below:

2019/20 AEB Evaluation Report