Skills England Publishes 39 Local Training Roadmaps to Close Regional Skills Gaps

Skills England has published 39 Local Skills Improvement Plans covering every part of England. The plans, released on 10 July 2026, give each area a three year framework setting out what priority sectors and job roles local employers find hardest to fill and what training providers are expected to do about it.

This is the second time such plans have been drawn up. The first round was published in 2023. The new versions were developed by designated Employer Representative Bodies and Strategic Authorities working alongside Skills England, following statutory guidance published last November. Unlike the first round, Strategic Authorities including mayoral combined authorities now have an enhanced partnership role in shaping what the plans commit to.

LSIPs are area level documents that map the skills employers actually need against what colleges, universities, and independent training providers currently deliver. The intent is to close the gap between training supply and business demand.

Each plan is led by an Employer Representative Body, typically a Chamber of Commerce which is responsible for drawing in small and medium sized businesses to shape priorities. Actions agreed with education providers are described by Skills England as mutually committed rather than aspirational, meaning both sides have formally signed up to what the plan commits to delivering.

Plans must join up with wider regional infrastructure. Job Centres, Strategic Authorities, universities, colleges and independent training providers all feature as named partners. Skills England's statutory guidance, published in November 2025, sets out how these relationships should work and what each party is expected to contribute.

Each plan is specific to its region. Several contain measures that go beyond standard training commitments.

In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the LSIP records that the number of job adverts requesting AI skills rose by around 66% between 2021 and 2025. Mechanical engineering, construction trades, and care sector roles are listed as the hardest to recruit for. The plan commits to reversing a recent decline in young people taking up apprenticeships, and to piloting employer led models designed to convert training into employment more reliably.

Greater Essex has committed to training 100 NEET mentors, people who will work with young people not in education, employment, or training. Tees Valley will develop shared work placement programmes involving multiple small businesses simultaneously, a model aimed at giving smaller employers access to placements they could not sustain independently. The East Midlands plan includes a Construction FE Teacher Industry Exchange Scheme, which would move practitioners between classrooms and industry sites. The West of England and North Somerset LSIP addresses calls from businesses for clearer signposting of green job pathways and career routes into the low carbon economy.

LSIPs sit within a wider programme of skills reform. Skills England was established to lead skills planning at both national and local level, and the government is also reforming the Apprenticeship Levy into a broader Growth and Skills Levy, which is intended to give employers more flexibility in how they spend training funds.

Phil Smith, Chair of Skills England, described the plans as giving areas "a clear roadmap that will help create better skills for better jobs all across the country." Skills Minister Jacqui Smith said local leaders had "a unique insight into the skills needs and opportunities in their area" and framed the plans as putting them "in the driving seat to support their community."

The government has set a target for two thirds of young people to participate in higher level learning whether academic, technical, or an apprenticeship by the time they reach 25. LSIPs are described as having an important role in delivering against that ambition, particularly through tackling youth unemployment at a local level.