With pic: Dan Canavan with Chris Wilshaw, Director of Operations at The Spark Group, ad Alexandra Powell, Managing Director, Powell Design and Construction Ltd.

Training and evaluation experts from Stoke-on-Trent’s The Spark Group led a discovery session with construction business leaders to support the next stage of the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Skills Improvement Plan.

The second tranche of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPS)  are currently being developed across England, with Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce leading the process in the county.

The Government say the new LSIPs are central to achieving the government’s Opportunity and Growth Missions, supporting Skills England’s driving ethos of Better Skills for Better Jobs and its vision to build our nation’s world-class skills system.

Business is at the heart of planning and The Spark Group, based in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent has been commissioned to quiz companies in the construction sector about their needs.

The Have Your Say session saw Spark Group Managing Director Dan Canavan and his team meet with property maintenance and building trades companies.

Dan said: “A LSIP is a three-year strategic framework designed to align the needs of local employers’ training and development needs with the offer available from training providers and educators.

“We are looking to identify skills gaps which cause issues for employers as they try to deliver crucial projects here in Staffordshire.

“The Have Your Say event, held to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week, provided a host of information. For example, how to best prepare young people for a career through work experience, but also the potential training needs of more established workers. Feedback included a need for ongoing training for senior teams, for example in leadership and how to harness new IT advancements.

“There is also a huge challenge ahead in terms of replacing an ageing trades workforce and a big task to ensure companies based in Staffordshire are given opportunities on large infrastructure projects in the county.”

Over 22,000 people were employed in trades across Staffordshire in 2024.

Dan said working with public and private sector partners to support research and evaluation was a growing area of work for The Spark Group.

Along with work on the LISP, The Spark Group is currently coming towards a year long project to evaluate the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) projects in Stoke-on-Trent on behalf of the city council. 

“We have an experienced core team with the expertise to work on evaluation projects with both public sector bodies and private companies,” said Dan who founded the company in 2023

Evaluation work is led by Dan and Business Manager Debbie Sturridge. Both have vast experience, with Dan having previously led a large team at Achieve Training where he was managing director.

To find out more about The Spark Group, please go online to www.thespark.group

ENDS