ESB Logistics Sector Action Group Notes and Actions

21st March 2018 (2.30pm to 5.00pm)

(Venue: Havering College, Ardleigh Green Campus, Ardleigh Green Road, Hornchurch RM11 2LL)

Notes and ActionsMembers in Attendance:Trevor Hutchinson Chair Emma Cowper DP World

Dan Tredget Konica Minolta Peter Barker Alpi UK

Val Barclay DWP Trevor Scott Simarco

Nicola Faulkner ESB Secretariat Annette Hall Education & Industry School STEM Programme

Robert Edge Invest Essex Stefan Vallance ESB Marketing Executive

Justin Rowley Havering College

1. Welcome and Introductions

TH welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made. Thanks were expressed to Justin Rowley at Havering College for hosting the meeting.Members were advised Ziegler Group had left the sector group.

ACTION

All to note

2. Minutes & Actions from last meeting

It was agreed the notes and actions from the last meeting were agreed as a true and accurate representation.

3. Outstanding Actions

It was noted the following outstanding actions needed progressing.

Action Log - Members to email NF a list of jobs advertised in the last 6 months.

Action Log - Paul Butler/Sue Potter to draft a note with official feedback from the sector group regarding experiences with the CEC EA Network and forward to TH/NF.

Action Log - Nadine Wood to email NF CEC EA Network case studies where programme is working well within Port of Tilbury

Action Log - it was agreed the group endorsed Thurrock’s Next Top Boss (TNTB) as an initial concept, pending further information. Once further details had been obtained, the sector group would consider this as an initiative to adopt in the future. Further progress to be reported. TH also

TH to send reminder email to members asking for advertised job vacancies to be emailed

Emma Cowper to follow up with Sue Potter

Nadine to email case study examples to NF

NF to contact Thurrock colleagues to find out further info on next round of TNTB.

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questioned whether the sector group would wish to roll this out to the wider Essex area. To be considered further at a future meeting

Action Log - TH/NF to circulate an e-mail seeking private sector members commitment to one or more of the adopted initiatives

TH to send reminder email seeking private sector members to commit to one or more adopted initiative

4. Update on ESB

At the last board meeting (Thursday 8th February) the following matters were discussed:University of Essex - Key initiatives at the university include:

Start-up Hub supporting graduate start-up companies Delivery of Higher and degree apprenticeships Greater connectivity between employers and the university

(employer advisory boards now cover all degree programmes)Careers Guide“What’s Your Thing – The Ultimate Guide to Getting a New Job in Essex” launched

ESB Business PlanAn ESB business plan highlighting key Board activities in 2018 has been developed as the basis of a future marketing plan Review of 2017 achievementsRecruitment Issues for CollegesContinuing difficulties with tutor recruitment, which is directly impacting on college provision. The Board discussed the take up of the Golden Hello programme, which was lower than expected, and agreed to consider a wider range of options for possible ESB support for collegesSELEP Skills Advisory PanelIt was highlighted that £17m of ESF funding is still to be allocated. Proposals for funding invitedInstitute of LogisticsAn update regarding the SEC bid for funding towards a Institute of Logistics was providedPartnering with DefenceArmed Forces Covenant, the Employer Recognition Scheme and the Career Transition Partnership which support military service leavers into other forms of employmentLower Thames CrossingProposed new crossing of the Thames estuary linking the county of Kent with the county of Essex through Thurrock. Project to seek the Board’s views on what the project could deliver in terms of employability and skills, both during the construction phase and longer term. It was noted the legacy team had been invited to the October ESB meeting.

Any member of the sector action group who wishes to receive any further information on any of the above to e-mail TH

5. Recap Progress TH confirmed the sector group had reconvened in June ’17 and 4 over-arching priorities had been agreed:P a g e | 2

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1. Rationalisation of initiatives (to maximise employer engagement time by coordinating requests for employer time to attend school events, career fairs to maximise resource and outputs etc)

2. Improve perception of logistics (the word means very little to students and members of the public)

3. Suitable training aligned to the need of the sector (there is a lack of provision across the county which meets employer needs)

4. A need to raise the academic progression pathway from post-16 into employment (i.e. raise the profile of further education and higher education courses as a clear path into entering employment in industry)

It was further noted a variety of initiatives had been adopted by the group to support with the priorities listed above. These are listed below:

Adopted in full:

1. Career Ready Think Logistics 2. Education and Industry STEM programme 3. Virtual Reality - Development of a VR experience to showcase

the logistics sector in schools, colleges, community centres and job centres (ECC has allocated £40k for the development of a VR experience, and associated hardware for programme rollout. Thurrock Council has earmarked £30k for development of additional VR experience and hardware for rollout in Thurrock.DPWLG application of £18k has been approved by the DPWLG Sustainability Fund

4. ESB Driver Programme (please note due to unforeseen circumstances the driver programme has been stopped and decommissioned with immediate effect)

Adopted as concepts (pending roll out and further information):

1. Tutor CPD Programme (a programme of continued professional development for college tutors to ensure they have up to date industry experience and to ensure curriculum content is industry relevant – taken out of educational system to spend time in industry)

2. Community Group Volunteering Programme – to support working age adults back into work after a period of time away from the job market, with offers of work experience by logistics employers

Suggestions for further initiatives are welcomed. Please e-mail proposals to TH/NF.

Members to email NF/TH with new ideas for initiatives for the sector action group to consider

6. Logistics Taster Day – Havering College It was noted that as part of the ESB Education & Industry STEM Programme, All to note

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a logistics taster day at Havering College had been organised on 5 March.

It was noted 3 separate activities had taken place during the day which had been supported by CILT, Havering College and one employer with only one school participating due to the adverse snow/weather at the time of the event. An analysis sheet was tabled which provided some analysis from the event and showed a positive increase in the number of students interested in logistics after the event.

It was noted that the lack of employer engagement had impacted on the event and that more employers were needed. The next taster day takes place in the summer – 18 June 2018. Annette Hall will be contacting individual employers to support with a range of activities with a wider range of students.

Members had a general discussion around the range of programmes that focussed on secondary school students. VB from DWP reminded members of existing DWP programmes which supported out of work adults gain necessary skills to re-enter the job market/employment. The Sector Work Based Academy model was given as an example which could help employers gain new staff. It was agreed Val Barclay would present the SWBA model at the next meeting.

In addition to the SWBA model, EC cited another programme of work which DPWLG were supporting. The Princes Trust were running a ‘Get into Logistics Programme’ which supports young people aged 18-30 living in Southend, Grays, and Basildon gain relevant qualifications such as Level 2 Award in Conflict Management, Level 1 award in Customer Service, Level 2 in COSHH, Level 2 Award in First Aid & Teamwork. Also training in picking and packing, complete with a 2 week work placement in one of the distribution buildings located at DP World London Gateway. Further progress to be reported.

Annette Hall to contact employers who had agreed to sign up to the E&I STEM Programme

Val Barclay to present the SWBA model to members at the next meeting

Emma Cowper to report back to the group on the ‘Get into logistics’ programme

7. Commitment to Initiatives

TH re-outlined the initiatives the group had endorsed and it was noted a number of employers were yet to confirm which initiatives they could actively support.It was agreed TH would have conversations with individual members who hadn’t responded and progressed agreed actions.

TH to contact members who haven’t confirmed support of initiatives.

8. Further Education – Lack of FE Provision for LogisticsIt was noted SEC were unable to attend the meeting but a telecall had taken place between Trevor Hutchinson, Nicola Faulkner and Angela O’Donoghue (Principle at SEC) to clarify the 16-18 logistics provision at the college.

AO’D confirmed SEC continued to provide vocational L1 and L2 courses and a variety of logistics and supply chain apprenticeships. The course which had been withdrawn due to low enrolment numbers was the Pearson BTEC Level 3 course but it was noted the college planned to offer an alternative offer from September 2018.South Essex College has confirmed the Government are now focusing (with the awarding bodies) on the development of T levels for vocational/technical subjects (at level 3) to become a real alternative to A levels. The

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Government is planning to develop a qualification in logistics but this will not be available until 2022 as it is one of the last qualifications to be developed in the whole suite of T levels. No awarding body will spend time in the interim developing a new level 3 qualification which would then have to be discontinued once the new T level is launched. SEC have asked if the ESB could try to influence the Government to bring forward the logistics T level qualification as there is no suitable level 3 programme available at the present timer.It was agreed Trevor Hutchinson would raise this at the next ESB.

It was further agreed Trevor Hutchinson would raise this with Xavier Woodward at DPWLG who had influence in central Government to arrange a possible meeting with colleagues in the Department for Education (DfE).

Justin Rowely confirmed Havering College had been heavily involved with logistics training since 2007 when the college were involved in writing and piloting several courses for TFL (later becoming accredited qualifications).

The college also developed and delivered all Crossrail lorry driver training over nine years (training over 11,000 drivers).

Members were advised Havering College currently run a full time course for 16-18 year olds using the CILT L1 and L2 qualifications. The course is combined with a business qualification to form a study program. This course has been available for the last three (3) years and numbers and interest has grown year on year. 16 students this academic year are on the course. The provision is directed towards lower academic abilities and provides a good overview of the logistics sector. Students would benefit from a more practical element and the college is looking at introducing a forklift truck element into the course next year.

The college also offers Level 3 business courses which have logistics options within the content.

The course is running a Gateway Access course in Logistics and Business management from September. This course is aimed at students wishing to progress into University to study logistics/supply chain management and has UCAS points. Unfortunately this is for students over the age of 19.

It was further noted, that despite the lack of UCAS points being assigned to many of the Logistics courses this does not mean students will be unable to get into University. The main purpose of the UCAS Tariff is for universities to report data to government bodies. However, some universities and colleges use UCAS points in their entry requirements and a lot of university's have a range of different entry requirements. Several of the courses have affiliation with CILT (such as Derby University) and therefore a level 3 CILT qualification would be a great advantage in addition to the normal academic requirements.

It was also noted, Havering run a variety of apprenticeships including Warehousing and driving goods vehicles.

Trevor to raise the issue of T level qualifications for logistics with the ESB to influence Government.

Trevor to contact Xavier Wood to orchestrate a meeting with Department of Education re: T Levels.

Members to contact Justin Rowley for further information

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A discussion took place around the lack of logistics provision in north Essex and the need to understand where the highest contingent of logistics employers were located in the county. It was agreed Robert Edge would map out the employer landscape from a BIFA, CILT and FTA perspective and present back at the next meeting. This was important for a further piece of work to be undertaken to ensure the alignment of provision mapped the areas where the highest prevalence of employers were based.

Post Meeting Note: the table below has been lifted from the ESB Sector Skills Profile and should be used in conjunction with any additional date/info of employer locations.

It was noted TH would send a follow up email to Angela Heaney at Colchester Institute regarding the potential for a north Essex college offer for logistics. Furthermore, it was noted any future offer could be shaped by the types of roles employers were currently recruiting to, in order for the curriculum/courses to be relevant to employer and industry need.

Once the mapping of employers had taken place, it was agreed this insight would be fed into Alison Andreas of FEDEC (Federation of Essex Colleges) as part of ongoing discussions to ensure FE provision was aligned to employer need and employer locations.

JRowley@havering-college.ac.uk

Robert Edge to map out employers per geographical area and report back at next meeting.

TH to email Angela Heaney to arrange a meeting re: possible north Essex college offer once we have developed geographical information regarding the spread and clusters of logistics operators in Essex.

9. Communication/Utilisation of ESB WebsiteStefan Vallance (ESB Marketing Executive) introduced himself to the sector group and members were advised their input was needed to maximise the effectiveness of the ESB website. The aim was for the site to act as a ‘hook’ for new employers and for the webpage to feature news, information, etc which could help raise the profile of the sector.

Some initial member feedback was noted:

As the ESB Driver Programme has been de-commissioned this article should be pulled from the webpage

Post Meeting Note: This has been actioned. All member logo’s should appear under the logistics sector page

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For content to rotate and be more engaging (i.e. image carousel) Queries were raised about the relevance of some of the old photo’s

still hosted on the site Utilising existing ESB twitter handle for the sector group to promote

events etc and generally increase the social media presence of logistics related activities

Setting up a sector group Linked-in page

It was agreed members would provide further feedback to Stefan.

It was agreed Val Barclay would liaise with Job Centre+ Work Coaches to gain their feedback as JCP+ were using digital technology more as a platform for job seekers to search for jobs.

Stefan to look into functionality of existing webpage and report back

Members to provide feedback and ideas on how best to use the logistics sector page within the ESB webpage

Val to liaise with JCP+ Work Coaches

10. Any Other Business

TS led a discussion and confirmed Simarco had tried to actively engage with stakeholders and local schools but it was noted it had been difficult.EC confirmed that a ‘Women into Engineering’ event at DP World London Gateway had been successful because the planning and detail of the day being organised by Career Ready. NF confirmed initiatives such as the Education and Industry STEM Programme, and Career Ready were ready made programmes, with resource to plan and manage events effectively, which maximised employer engagement i.e. employers did not need to get involved in the planning of the days/events and could attend in a specialist capacity.

TS led a further discussion around the perception that the sector action group only focussed its activities on south Essex, due to the large contingent of south Essex employers. TH and NF confirmed this was not the case and the group represented the whole of Essex (regardless of the unitary authority boundaries of Essex, Southend and Thurrock).

It was acknowledged more mid and west Essex employers would be welcomed. NF confirmed a meeting had been arranged with the Chairman of Woodland logistics to seek their involvement as a future private sector member.

It was agreed TS would discuss the role of the group with other local based employers to Simarco. NF confirmed an ESB letter could be used, inviting potential new employers to the next meeting.Post Meeting Note: the attached letter can be used.

TH/NF to meet with Woodland Logistics and feedback

Trevor Scott to discuss the role of the sector action group with other local companies in consideration of becoming a sector member.

11. Date and Time of Next Meeting

9th May 2018 at 2.30pm to 5.00pmBoard Room, Konica Minolta, Miles Gray Road, Basildon, Essex, SS14

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3AR

Post Meeting Note: Please note we have had to bring the meeting forward to 12.30pm to 2.45pm.

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Action LogESB Sector Action Group – LogisticsSummary of Actions/Activity By Whom Timeframe

TH to send reminder email to members asking for advertised job vacancies to be emailed

Trevor Hutchinson Prior to May meeting

Emma Cowper to follow up with Sue Potter re feedback on CEC EA Network

Emma Cowper Prior to May meeting

Nadine Wood to email NF CEC EA Network case studies where programme is working well within Port of Tilbury

Nadine Wood Carried forward from March

NF to contact Thurrock colleagues to find out further info on next round of TNTB and report back at next meeting.

Nicola Faulkner Prior to next meeting

TH to send reminder email seeking private sector members to commit to one or more adopted initiative

Trevor Hutchinson Prior to next meeting

TH to email Angela Heaney to arrange a meeting re: possible north Essex college offer.

Employers ASAP

TS/NF to meet with Woodland Logistics and feedback on outcome of meeting at next sector group

Nicola Faulkner/Trevor Hutchinson

Trevor Scott to discuss the role of the sector action group with other local companies in consideration of becoming a sector member and feedback. Attached letter can be used

Trevor Scott By May meeting

Members to email NF/TH with new ideas for initiatives for the sector action group to consider

All employers Ongoing

Annette Hall to contact employers who had agreed to sign up to the E&I STEM Programme re involvement for summer Taster Day

Annette Hall By May meeting

Val Barclay to present the SWBA model to members at the next meeting

Val Barclay By May meeting

Emma Cowper to report back to the group on the ‘Get into logistics’ programme delivered by the Prince’s Trust Programme

Emma Cowper By May meeting

Robert Edge to map out employers per geographical area and report back at next meeting.

TH to contact members who haven’t confirmed support of initiatives

Robert Edge

Trevor Hutchinson

By May meeting

By May meeting

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Trevor to raise the issue of T level qualifications for logistics with the ESB to influence Government

Trevor Hutchinson By May meeting

Trevor to contact Xavier Wood to orchestrate a meeting with Department of Education regarding proposed timeline for the development of Logistics T Levels.

Trevor Hutchinson By May meeting

Members to contact Justin Rowley for further information on FE coursesJRowley@havering-college.ac.uk

Trevor Hutchinson By May meeting

Members to provide feedback and ideas on how best to use the logistics sector page within the ESB webpage

Members By May meeting

Val to liaise with JCP+ Work Coaches on the ESB webpage Val Barclay By May meetingMembers to contact TH should they wish to receive any further information on ESB related information

Members Ongoing

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