From Members’ Voices to Regional Policy: How Collaboration Shaped the Local Skills Improvement Plan
Much of Tees Maritime’s work happens behind the scenes. One of our roles is to bring together the experiences of businesses from across the sector and turn them into robust evidence that helps shape the decisions affecting the region’s future.
A good example of that is the recently published Tees Valley Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP).
When Tees Maritime was established, one of our priorities was tackling one of the biggest barriers to growth across the maritime sector: people.
The challenge wasn’t simply a shortage of skills. It was a system that made it difficult to break the cycle.
Employers told us they couldn’t recruit the people they needed to grow. At the same time, colleges and training providers needed clear evidence of employer demand before they could justify investing in new courses, specialist facilities and equipment.
Industry needed the workforce before it could grow. Education needed evidence of growth before it could invest.
Bridging that gap is exactly the sort of challenge a cluster is designed to tackle.
Over the past eighteen months, we’ve spent time listening to members, understanding where the pressures really are and building an evidence base that reflects the experiences of businesses across the Tees Valley maritime sector.
That work involved employer engagement, workforce research, mapping the wider maritime ecosystem and identifying the technical skills that businesses will need as the sector continues to evolve. The result was a detailed response to the Local Skills Improvement Plan consultation, representing not the view of one organisation, but the collective experience of the wider maritime community.
The submission highlighted a consistent message from employers. Maritime businesses may operate in different markets, but many are competing for the same specialist skills. At the same time, young people often struggle to see how engineering, digital technology, logistics and other technical subjects connect to careers in ports and maritime. Without recognising maritime as a connected ecosystem, opportunities are missed and skills planning becomes fragmented.
Submitting the response wasn’t the end of the process. It became the foundation for further conversations with education providers, policymakers and regional partners, ensuring the evidence gathered from industry remained part of the discussion as the plan was developed. See response here: LSIP Feedback
The final Local Skills Improvement Plan reflects many of those themes: https://teesvalley-ca.gov.uk/news/new-local-skills-improvement-plan-sets-out-employer-led-roadmap-for-tees-valley/
Rather than treating maritime as a niche industry, it recognises the role the maritime ecosystem plays in supporting advanced manufacturing, clean energy, logistics and industrial decarbonisation. It also highlights the need for specialist technical skills, stronger workforce pathways and closer collaboration between employers and education providers.
That recognition matters because policy shapes decisions. It influences where funding is directed, which courses are developed, where colleges invest and how careers are promoted. None of those changes happen overnight, but together they create the conditions needed to build the workforce our region will need in the years ahead.
For us, this is an important milestone because it demonstrates the value of speaking with one voice. Repeatedly, until someone listens.
No single business can represent an entire sector. By bringing together the experiences of employers from across the maritime community, Tees Maritime is able to present a broader picture of the challenges and opportunities facing the industry, creating evidence that carries greater weight than any one organisation could provide alone.
That is one of the greatest strengths of a cluster.
While our members focus on running their businesses, we can focus on the issues that affect them all, bringing together evidence, maintaining relationships and ensuring the sector’s priorities remain part of regional conversations.
There is still plenty of work ahead. Recognition in policy is only the first step. Our focus now is on working with industry, education and government to help translate that recognition into stronger pathways, better training provision and a workforce that can support the Tees Valley’s future growth.
Much of that work will never make the headlines, but it is one of the most important ways a cluster can create value for its members and for the wider region.