A skills ecosystem is defined as stakeholders in a region or industry sector working together to develop and share skills and knowledge for mutual benefit. Characteristics include stakeholders committed to a broad agenda, self-sustaining networks shaped by collaboration, addressing both supply and demand of skills, and driving innovation. Ecosystems can be formal or informal. Sheffield Engineering Leadership Academy is a case study of a formal ecosystem developing engineering student leaders through industry projects. Developing a skills ecosystem in Herefordshire centered around NMITE could enhance integration, apply learnings to curriculum, and foster enterprise through challenge-led learning and collaboration between education and industry stakeholders.

1. Building Skills Ecosystems
for Regional Development
Professor Gary C Wood
Academic Director, NMITE
gary.wood@nmite.ac.uk | @GC_Wood
www.garycwood.uk

2. Overview
• Background
• Defining skills ecosystems
• Characteristics
• Formality of structure
• Case study from Sheffield
• Sheffield Engineering Leadership Academy
• Wider developments and the ecosystem
• Why develop an ecosystem?
• Q&A.

3. What is a skills ecosystem?
• ‘Skills ecosystem’ coined by Finegold (1999)
• Stakeholders in a region or industry sector working to use, share and
develop their skills and knowledge in mutually beneficial ways, and for
the benefit of people external to the network
• Include industry, organisations, community, Government, local
authorities and policy makers, individuals, education and training
providers.

4. Characteristics
• Stakeholders are committed to a broad agenda, not (just) own interests
• Self-sustaining networks, shaped by stakeholders working together
• Have a genuine focus on improving business performance
• Address both demand for and supply of skills/knowledge, closing gap
between provision of skills and need for them
• Interdisciplinary, moving away from knowledge-based learning to build
competencies
• Often closely linked to economic development of the region/industry
sector
• Aligned with adapting to rapid change, and driving innovation.
(See Clayton 2016; NSW Department of Education & Training 2008)

5. Formality of ecosystems
Formal Informal
Development Mechanism
Planned and structured approach
Created deliberately
Particular aims and objectives
Organic
Unplanned, emergent approach
More general aims and objectives
Characteristics

6. How does an ecosystem develop?
• Some stimulus required to get started
• a specific ecosystem project (formal – like Herefordshire Skills for the Future)
• activities that will foster collaboration between stakeholders (informal)
• Bring stakeholders together around that stimulus
• Select stakeholders with different knowledge and skills, or need to
develop them
• Identify and build on opportunities for mutual benefit
• Foster the generous sharing of knowledge and skills, and identify gaps
• Disseminate and share progress and outcomes widely, to bring others in
• Focus on the value and the need rather than the skills per se –
aim to achieve something together, and let the skills development
follow that.

7. Case Study: Sheffield City Region
• Sheffield City Region –
• Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA)
• Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
• SCR Executive Team
• Remit is to support economic growth
across South Yorkshire (Barnsley,
Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield)
• Priorities include business growth,
infrastructure, transport links, and
skills & employment.

8. SELA
• Sheffield Engineering Leadership Academy (SELA) – develops selected
engineering undergraduate students to become leaders with the skills,
confidence and aptitude to make a positive difference
• 40 students per year, selected for leadership potential
• Working in close collaboration with industry and academia
• Students undertake real projects, to deliver value, not achieve grades.

9. Broad themes as stimuli
Stakeholders
Stimulus themes (examples)
Education
Industry
Government
etc
Industry 4.0 Sustainability Smart Places Healthcare etc

10. Bringing together stakeholders

11. Entrepreneur in Residence
• Dr Ceri Batchelder working in the
region
• Became Royal Society Entrepreneur
in Residence in 2018
• Aim: “To create a digital
‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’ with
technologists and industry,
stimulating new connections and
ideas.”

12. Digital Leaders
• Ceri engaged with SELA and
joined our Operations Board
• Allowed us to accelerate the
process of building regional
connections
• Link our students’ development
as (engineering) leaders to
regional issues and businesses.

13. Examples of our projects
• Industry 4.0 adoption – addressing the decline in manufacturing by
removing barriers to digitalisation particularly for SMEs
• Smart Places – effecting attitudinal change through partnership with
education and working with local councils to explore the use of data, AI
and machine learning
• Health and Social Care – tackling challenges in social care, mental
health and wellbeing through identifying barriers to adoption of digital,
and prototyping solutions
• Food security and sustainability – building competitive local food
systems and exploring ways in which large scale agritech can be
adapted for smaller local farms
• Education – inspiring young people to recognise their potential to
succeed through STEM, using outreach, engagement and
structured learning opportunities.

14. Sharing learning together
• Students greatly value the experience (Habbershaw, Sharp & Wood
2019):
• ‘Focus shifts from grades to output value’
• ‘Connects learning to applications – so we can practise and recognise value’
• Develop professional skills and recognise their agency in using knowledge
and skills
• Value to industry:
• ‘The students came from multiple disciplines … [they] bring new skillsets and
help us innovate, using new ways of thinking. … The business has changed.
We look at things in a new way. We’re looking at how we can actually
introduce some of the changes that the students have suggested.’

15. Outcomes & Value
• Enhanced integration between stakeholders in the region
• Learnings applied to curriculum – demand-based talent pipeline
• Digital skills development more highly embedded
• Enterprise, entrepreneurship and innovation fostered
• New projects and relationships
• Student placements, internships, graduate roles with businesses
gaining new perspectives and fresh talent
• Research collaborations in IoT and AI
• New approaches, enhanced productivity, and cost reduction for
regional SMEs
• New funding
• Awards and recognition.

16. Herefordshire skills ecosystem?
• Closely linked to economic development of the region
• NMITE is a new provider, offering a different kind of engineering
education: addressing needs and creating work-ready graduates
• Through that, and our wider work/Herefordshire Skills for the Future
project we want to have a positive regional impact, but:
• Self-sustaining networks, shaped by stakeholders working together
• We need to work with industry to create challenge-led learning, that’s linked
demand for knowledge and skills
• We want a shared agenda, not one we impose
• Work with us, and each other, and let’s build an ecosystem
and see what we can achieve together?

17. References
• Clayton (2016). Local Partnership Working to Improve Young People’s
Employment Prospects. London: Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Available
at www.churchillfellowship.org/ideas-experts/ideas-library/local-
partnership-working-to-improve-young-peoples-employment-prospects
[Accessed 12 March 2021].
• Finegold (1999). Creating self-sustaining, high-skills ecosystems. Oxford
Review of Economics. 15(1).
• Habbershaw, Sharp & Wood (2019). Leading the Way with Integrative
Projects to support Skills Development. Paper presented at Enhancing
Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship. Edinburgh, 18 July 2019.
[Slides available at www.garycwood.uk].
• NSW Department of Education & Training (2008). Skills in Context: A guide
to the skill ecosystem approach to workforce development. Sydney: NWS
Department of Education & Training. Available at
www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A12460 [Accessed 12 March 2021].

18. Building Skills Ecosystems
for Regional Development
Professor Gary C Wood
Academic Director, NMITE
gary.wood@nmite.ac.uk | @GC_Wood
www.garycwood.uk