Meet the Local Skills Improvement Plan Team

Matt designs and oversees the overall strategy, progress and outputs for the Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs). Within his role, he ensures we are working with the most appropriate partners, speaking to as many relevant businesses as possible and adding value to everyone’s understanding of current and future skills, He also provides opportunities for businesses to feed directly into education and training provision.

Chloe provides leadership for the operational delivery of all Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) activity across the West of England and North Somerset, Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire, and Somerset, balancing strategic oversight with hands-on management. She manages operational outputs from within each function, oversees coordination between other managers and leads and is responsible for ensuring activity is delivered to time, budget, and quality standards.

As the LSIP Research Manager, Hannah works with the team internally as well as external stakeholders to produce updates on research carried out through the LSIP process so far, and the ongoing production of ‘roadmap’ documentation. This includes outlining the priorities for all local areas under the LSIP and looking towards shaping the post-16 technical education landscape, support and initiatives to help employers in West of England and North Somerset, Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire and Somerset.

As part of his role as Policy Analyst at Business West, Gus provides information, research, analysis and policy development support to the Policy, LSIP and Initiative teams. He provides in-depth research and analysis on key business and economy issues – including the role of planning, housing, transport and our regional skills and labour market work. Gus contributes to the production of Business West’s Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) and he carries out strategic horizon scanning and intelligence gathering service, identifying new policies and strategies at a regional and national level on key policy campaigns and priorities.

Lauren provides strategic leadership and operational management for employer-facing LSIP engagement activity across all four LSIPs, including oversight and coordination of the engagement activity undertaken by Somerset Chamber of Commerce. Lauren assists with gathering of new intelligence and the analysis of the data captured and plays a key role in the LSIP event programme on the future skills landscape.

Josh is responsible for engaging with businesses to support our research on future skills needs across three LSIPs: Gloucestershire; Swindon and Wiltshire; and West of England and North Somerset. Further, Josh supports our chamber membership engagement to ensure members get the most value out of their membership.

Working closely with all our LSIP team at Business West Barry's role has a priority focus on skills and workforce development planning, with the flexibility to respond to demand and regional priorities relevant to workforce needs. Through individual business engagement, focus groups and events his role helps to assist businesses to navigate a sometimes-complicated skills landscape and develop their skills and training strategies. 

Fiona is a Business Skills Advisor working on the Local Skills Improvement Plans. These programmes provide fully funded workforce planning for SMEs to help them attract, recruit, and retain their workforce. Fiona has worked in skills and employability for many years, mainly within the private and third sectors. She is passionate about helping businesses navigate the skills landscape to grow their business and upskill their workforce.

Chloe works as a Project Manager and Green Lead, supporting the delivery of the LSIP and ensuring projects, research, and stakeholder engagement are well coordinated and delivered. Chloe leads on embedding green skills across LSIP activity, working closely with employers, providers, and stakeholders to integrate sustainability, decarbonisation, and future workforce needs into skills planning and delivery.

Fay oversees the marketing and comms for the Local Skills Improvement Plans, working closely with Louise to spread the word about the work we are doing. From promoting our events, to marketing opportunities for businesses to get involved with the LSIPs, Fay feeds into the Marketing Strategy but also is hands on with delivering marketing outputs such as blogs, social media posts and marketing emails. 

Jacquie supports with running all focus groups and events across the LSIPs. You'll find her at focus groups and forums running slides and coordinating the team.