Driving employer engagement and insight for the Greater Manchester Local Skills Improvement Plan
The context
The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce is the designated Employer Representative Body for the Greater Manchester Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), commissioned by the Department for Education.
LSIPs are part of a national, employer-led programme designed to reshape post-16 education and training so that it better reflects the needs of local economies. In Greater Manchester, the LSIP brings together employers, education providers, the Combined Authority and other stakeholders to identify skills gaps and create a clear, actionable plan for addressing them.
At the heart of the approach is a simple principle: the skills system should be driven by real employer need.
To support this, the Chamber brought On The Level into the LSIP team on a retained basis to lead employer engagement and generate high-quality insight in both 2023 and again in 2026.
Our role and what we delivered
Our role was to design and deliver the employer engagement that underpinned the LSIP, ensuring both the depth of insight and the level of participation required to make the work credible.
A key part of this was access. Using our network, we identified and secured conversations with business leaders and HR professionals across Greater Manchester, spanning sectors including advanced manufacturing, life sciences, digital, logistics, social care and food production.
In 2026 alone, we engaged over 75 organisations, building on more than 120 interviews delivered in 2023.
We also designed the discussion framework that structured these conversations, ensuring consistency while allowing for rich, qualitative insight.
The interviews explored:
roles in highest demand and hardest to fill
critical technical and sector-specific skills gaps
the impact of shortages on business performance and growth
how employers currently recruit, train and respond to gaps
the practical measures that would make the biggest difference
We then led the interviews directly, building trust with participants and creating space for open, honest discussion that would not typically surface through surveys or lighter-touch consultation.
The insight generated fed directly into the LSIP report and its subsequent updates, helping to shape priorities across sectors and inform the development of training provision.
What made it work
A defining feature of this work was the combination of reach and depth.
The strength of our network meant we were able to engage a wide range of employers, including those who do not typically participate in formal consultation processes. This is critical in LSIP work, where the aim is to ensure the system reflects the full breadth of employer experience.
At the same time, the structured interview approach ensured that insight was consistent, comparable and strategically useful.
This meant the work delved beyond identifying headline skills gaps, to understanding their underlying causes and the practical changes needed to address them.
The impact
The project created a robust, employer-led evidence base for the Greater Manchester LSIP.
It ensured that the plan was grounded in real experience, strengthening its credibility with policymakers, education providers and stakeholders across the region.
The insight gathered helped to:
identify priority skills gaps across sectors
highlight roles that are persistently hard to fill
surface emerging needs linked to digital, sustainability and workforce change
inform practical, employer-led recommendations for change
It also strengthened engagement with employers, ensuring their perspectives were clearly reflected in the plan and its ongoing development.
Why it matters
Local Skills Improvement Plans are designed to ensure that skills provision is shaped by employer demand, rather than assumption. This work helped make that possible in practice.
By bringing detailed, high-quality employer insight into the heart of the LSIP, the project supported a more responsive and locally driven skills system, aligned with the needs of businesses and the wider economy.
It also demonstrated the value of bringing in external expertise to lead engagement, particularly where access, trust and quality of insight are critical to success.
Interested in working together?
This project is a good example of how we work as part of wider teams.
We are often brought in on a retained basis to lead specific elements of delivery, particularly where projects require strong stakeholder engagement, high-quality insight, and the ability to quickly build trust with senior leaders.
If you are delivering a project that would benefit from this kind of support, we would be very happy to have a conversation.
