Skills and Future Workforce Plan 2025 to 2030

Foreword 

Devon and Torbay is home to dynamic communities, world-class natural assets, growing industry sectors, and a resilient business base. But we also face real challenges ranging from low productivity and persistent skills gaps, to high levels of economic inactivity and barriers that prevent too many residents from accessing good work and reaching their full potential.  

It is the first of its kind developed by the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority (DTCCA), and it reflects our ambition to do things differently. The evidence is clear: while parts of the current skills system perform well, it is not sufficiently joined up, not reaching all of our communities, and not fully aligned with the needs of our economy or employers. Too often, learners facing the greatest barriers, such as those who have experienced care, have a disability, or face other forms of disadvantage – are least well served by the current system. We need a more connected, inclusive, and forward-looking approach, that brings together employment support and skills development to deliver real impact.  

This is not just about qualifications or training in isolation. It is about access to opportunity, progression in work, long-term employability, and thriving local communities through skills and training. It is about helping young people find their path; supporting residents to retrain and succeed; enabling employers to invest in talent; and ensuring that no part of our geography is left behind.  

It is about creating clear, supported skills pathways into both high-growth and our recognised bedrock sectors, including health, tourism, construction, and care, and enabling individuals to gain the skills they need to pursue self-employment and entrepreneurship, particularly in our small business economy. These ambitions will be driven by initiatives such as Skill Up Devon and Torbay, our Digital Skills Taskforce, and a new Green Skills Transition programme, which will together form the basis of delivery. 

This plan also recognises that access to opportunity is not only about provision, but also about the ability to reach it. That’s why better integration between skills, education and transport systems is vital. This means ensuring residents, particularly in rural and coastal communities, are not left behind due to mobility constraints. We will also seek to work more closely with our schools, further education (FE) colleges and local independent training providers (ITPs) to sustain access to post-16 education in more remote areas, including through shared delivery models and practical collaboration that ensures viability as well as reach. We will publish regular progress updates through a public Skills Intelligence Dashboard to ensure transparency and continuous improvement. 

We have developed this plan with our key partners and stakeholders so that it reflects a shared ambition across Devon and Torbay. We now invite everyone to play a part in delivering it. 

Executive Summary 

The Devon and Torbay Skills and Future Workforce Plan sets out a roadmap to strengthen the skills system, address persistent inequalities, and unlock the potential of our residents and economy. Developed by the DTCCA, this is the first plan of its kind shaped under devolved powers and is a critical component of the region’s wider Local Growth Plan and the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working plan. The plan will be delivered through a small number of flagship programmes, backed by clear performance measures and annual public reporting to track progress across people, business and place. 

A Shared Vision for Skills and Opportunity 

To build an inclusive, future-ready, and resilient skills system that empowers all residents of Devon and Torbay to thrive in a rapidly evolving economy – supporting individual ambition, local prosperity, and sustainable growth. 

This means creating a system that can be measured by outcomes – higher participation, better progression, and improved productivity. 

Devon and Torbay is home to vibrant communities and strong anchor institutions but we face pressing and interconnected challenges. Productivity remains below the national average; economic inactivity is high in many parts of the region; and too many people are excluded from opportunity. Meanwhile, employers continue to report acute skills shortages in both bedrock and high-growth sectors. Our system must also do more to support those who face the greatest barriers including care-experienced young people, disabled learners, and others at risk of disconnection from education and employment.  

This plan aims to deliver a more agile, inclusive and place-based approach to skills development, ensuring that residents can access high-quality opportunities to learn and progress throughout their lives. It sets a clear direction for how the DTCCA and partners will work together to design, fund and deliver a system that is responsive to local needs and rooted in economic opportunity. It also provides a foundation for future change, acknowledging the current period of evolving opportunities presented by further devolution and reform. The progress will be monitored through a new Skills Intelligence Dashboard, which will also inform commissioning decisions and maintain transparency across the system. 

The Case for Change 

Four key challenges drive the need for action: 

• Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow: Too many young people leave education without the skills and support they need to thrive. Higher-than-average rates of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), regional underperformance in attainment, and a mismatch between aspirations and opportunities are holding back the next generation. The system must do more to meet the needs of vulnerable young people and adults in particular, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND), those who have experienced care, and others facing disadvantage. 
• Creating a More Productive Workforce: Devon and Torbay face challenges including an ageing workforce, underinvestment in upskilling, and lower levels of qualifications. Addressing productivity gaps requires targeted investment in skills development and inclusive workforce strategies that harness the experience and potential of all age groups. 
• Supporting Growth and Economic Diversification: Our economy is concentrated in a small number of lower-wage and lower-productivity sectors. While enabling residents to access opportunities in higher economic value industries such as digital, engineering, health innovation, and green energy is essential, we must also focus on increasing productivity within traditionally lower-paid sectors. Without this, these sectors risk facing even greater skills challenges as more competitive industries expand.  Apprenticeships and vocational routes especially those developed in partnership with small and micro employers and self-employed individuals are central to achieving this. 
• Creating Opportunity for All: Large sections of the potential workforce face multiple barriers such as poor health and low qualifications to rural isolation. Improving access to functional skills including basic English, Maths and digital provision will be essential to re-engage these learners and provide clear, supported pathways into further learning or employment. Tackling these challenges will require deeper collaboration across health, housing, transport and skills services. This includes ensuring viable and sustainable access to FE and ITPs in rural and coastal areas, including through transport solutions and joint delivery with existing institutions. 

Strategic Priorities 

In response, the plan identifies four cross-cutting priorities that will guide all future investment and delivery: 

• Empowering Young People to Succeed: Expanding access to careers advice, work experience, vocational learning, and pathways into apprenticeships, higher education (HE) and employment. The Skill Up Devon and Torbay initiative will act as a key delivery vehicle for this priority. A particular focus will be placed on supporting vulnerable learners including those who have experienced care, live with disability, or face other forms of disadvantage. 
• Boosting Workforce Productivity and Progression: Increasing take-up of adult learning, investing in leadership and digital skills, and supporting in-work progression especially in bedrock sectors such as social care, hospitality and logistics. 
• Aligning Skills with Economic Opportunity: Focusing provision on core and emerging growth sectors, informed by robust labour market intelligence and co-designed with employers. A Hub and Spoke training infrastructure will help ensure local delivery is aligned to sector needs. This includes strengthening pathways into bedrock sectors such as tourism, construction, health and social care – and supporting residents to build careers through small business employment or self-employment. 
• Driving Inclusion Through Place-Based Delivery: Embedding training in local venues such as libraries, work hubs and community centres; strengthening rural access; and coordinating health, housing and skills support for those furthest from the labour market. This will include better integration between education and transport systems and working with schools and FE colleges and ITPs to sustain access in more isolated communities. 

Together these priorities form the foundation of the region’s Skills Framework, connecting education, business growth, and inclusion through measurable outcomes. Each priority will be supported by clear indicators of success, published annually through the Skills Intelligence Dashboard. 

The priorities are fully aligned with the region’s Local Growth Plan, supporting the broader ambition of the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working plan to reduce inactivity and improve job quality. The priorities also reflect the wider net zero and health inclusion objectives of the Combined Authority, ensuring that skills policy contributes directly to green transition, wellbeing, and long-term resilience.  

Translating Vision into Action 

To deliver these priorities, the plan proposes six Calls to Action, integrating the evidence and recommendations from the supporting insight work: 

• Skill Up Devon and Torbay: A new gateway for young people, NEETs and the wider workforce, offering careers advice, progression routes and employer engagement. 
• Hub and Spoke Delivery Model: Localised training embedded in accessible venues, backed by flexible commissioning and sector-aligned provision. 
• Digital Skills Task Force: Raising digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capability across all levels, from school leavers to business leaders, with a strong focus on inclusion. 
• Employer-Led Engagement and Intelligence: A coordinated system for capturing and responding to business need, built around sector partnerships and outreach. This will include a renewed focus on small and micro businesses, recognising their role as key employers and training partners across Devon and Torbay. 
• System Coordination and Oversight: Enhanced governance through the Skills and Employment Advisory Group, stronger tertiary collaboration, and data-driven planning. 
• Health, Wellbeing and Economic Participation: Linking skills with wider determinants of economic inactivity, and working with programmes such as Connect to Work, Health and Transport pilots, and programmes to improve access and resilience. 

These Calls to Action represent the plan’s flagship programmes designed to drive visible change for communities across Devon and Torbay. 

Making it Happen 

Successful delivery depends on critical enablers: devolved investment and funding flexibility; fit-for-purpose infrastructure; a skilled delivery workforce; robust data systems; strong local governance; and a culture of innovation. Section 8 of the plan sets out how these will be activated. The DTCCA will oversee progress through a strengthened Skills and Employment Advisory Group, supported by regular data reporting and evaluation. 

A detailed implementation plan will follow, including a phased timetable. Devolution of the Adult Skills Fund from 2026/27 offers a unique opportunity to commission locally relevant, high-impact provision. Meanwhile, early activity to pilot Skill Up Devon and Torbay and preparing for local commissioning will begin from Autumn 2025. The DTCCA will also publish the first annual Skills and Future Workforce Progress Report in 2026, setting out achievements, lessons learned, and next steps. 

Introduction 

Purpose of the Plan

This Skills and Future Workforce Plan sets out the DTCCA’s long-term vision for strengthening the skills system across Devon and Torbay, improving access to learning, enabling progression, and ensuring that local provision reflects the distinctive needs of our people, places, and economy. It is about equipping residents with the tools to thrive and ensuring that employers can access the talent they need to grow. It also sets out how the DTCCA will measure success through a clear performance framework tracking participation, attainment and progression at regional and local levels. 

Our region spans diverse communities – from Torbay and the market towns of mid-Devon, to the coastal settlements of North Devon and the deeply rural areas of West Devon and the South Hams. This diversity brings with it strength, but also complexity. Long travel-to-learn distances, sparse transport infrastructure, and uneven access to higher-level provision make skills planning in Devon and Torbay a challenge that demands not only local insight and targeted solutions, but also coordinated planning across transport, education and employment systems to enable inclusive access. This is particularly important in rural and coastal areas, where access to learning depends not only on transport but on collaborative working between local learning providers and institutions to maintain viable, high-quality options close to home. 

This plan is developed at a pivotal moment. It reflects a system in transition – not only in terms of workforce needs, but in the evolving responsibilities of local and regional partners. Devolution has created new opportunities to shape policy around the lived reality of our places. As we prepare to take on responsibility for ASF and associated powers, we are laying the foundations for a more responsive, inclusive and place-led system.  It will also establish the governance, data systems and delivery partnerships required to manage devolved skills investment effectively, drawing on best practice from other Combined Authorities. 

What the Plan Aims to Do

Devon and Torbay face a set of interlinked skills challenges: relatively low qualification levels, particularly in rural and coastal communities; a lack of progression into higher-skilled and better-paid employment; sectoral underrepresentation in higher-wage, higher productivity industries; and growing digital, health and demographic divides. At the same time, our economic strengths – including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, defence, digital, and marine – are demanding new skills and capabilities. 

This plan has five aims: 

• Respond to local evidence: Drawing on our local data and community insight, the plan addresses the long-standing challenges affecting Devon and Torbay’s workforce – from limited training access in Torridge, to youth NEET levels in Torbay. It also responds directly to the needs of those with additional barriers to learning – including care-experienced young people, learners with a health-related barrier to progression, and others who face multiple or overlapping disadvantages. 
• Establish shared priorities: It sets out a common direction of travel for colleges, employers, training providers, and civic partners, aligned around the needs of our communities and economy. This includes a renewed emphasis on apprenticeships, vocational pathways, and closer collaboration with small and micro businesses, which form the backbone of our regional economy. 
• Direct investment where it counts: By guiding the use of devolved ASF resources, we will be able to better target delivery in places like Ilfracombe, Newton Abbot, Brixham or Tavistock, where needs are greatest and provision is patchiest. We will also seek to support joint working between learning institutions to sustain accessible delivery in dispersed areas, recognising that collaboration is key to achieving both reach and financial viability. 
• Strengthen system leadership: We will build capacity across local institutions to collaborate and deliver more strategically – creating more consistent and transparent decision-making across the area. We will ensure this includes specific, supported pathways into sectors that matter to our communities – including tourism, care, health and the wider services economy – and will support routes into self-employment and enterprise as key forms of progression. 
• Embed a place-based model: The plan recognises that North Devon is not the same as Exeter, and that what works in Torbay won’t always work in South Hams. Our approach will be sensitive and tailored to place, with solutions designed around local strengths, barriers, and ambition. 

How the Plan Was Developed

This plan has been shaped by the people and places of Devon and Torbay. It reflects insights from across our system – from Torbay’s photonics sector and Exeter’s digital industries, to rural training providers in West Devon and community learning initiatives in Ilfracombe. It draws together evidence, lived experience, and institutional knowledge to build a shared understanding of where we are – and where we want to go. The approach has combined extensive engagement with data-driven analysis to ensure decisions are based on both lived experience and measurable evidence. 

Key sources of insight have included: 

• The Devon and Somerset Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), which identifies current and future workforce needs across the region, highlighting key employer focus areas in sectors such as logistics, health, engineering, and technology. 
• The Devon County Skills Analysis, which highlights pronounced inequalities in qualification levels and wage progression across coastal and inland communities. 
• Direct feedback from colleges and providers identifying gaps in access, duplication in provision, and opportunities to align around progression pathways. This feedback has also emphasised the importance of engaging smaller employers and working in more joined-up ways to support sustainable local delivery. 
• Local authority data, business surveys, and strategic forums that have flagged place-specific needs including adult reskilling in former coastal tourism areas and digital capability in rural small and micro businesses. 
• Community voices, including residents who have participated in Digital Skills Bootcamps, employment hubs, or Careers Hub programmes whose experiences have helped shape the case for reform. Particular attention was given to those who have struggled to engage with learning due to care responsibilities, health-related barriers to progression, or other forms of isolation. 
• Engagement has included partners from across Devon and Torbay, with ongoing discussions involving Plymouth City Council to ensure that delivery is aligned with city-level plans and priorities, particularly around sector growth, FE/HE collaboration, and Centres of Excellence. 
• Key learnings from the experiences of other devolved areas, such as Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, where devolution agreements have demonstrated the value of aligning skills delivery with local economic priorities, integrating technical education systems, and strengthening partnerships between local authorities, providers, and employers. 

How It Aligns with Other Plans

This plan sits alongside and supports a broader package of reform and ambition across Devon and Torbay. It is one part of a wider commitment to building a fairer, greener and more prosperous regional economy. 

It is also aligned with the UK Industrial Strategy 2025, ensuring that local delivery supports national ambitions around sector growth, green transition, and place-based investment. This alignment means that regional training priorities – including construction, housing, and green technologies – are not only shaped by local employer demand and community insight, but also contribute to wider national goals such as decarbonisation, infrastructure modernisation, and inclusive economic growth. Each of these linkages will be tracked through a shared outcomes framework aligned with national datasets, ensuring consistency between local and national reporting. 

The plan aligns directly with the DTCCA’s Local Growth Plan, which is focused on unlocking business investment, infrastructure, and regeneration. Skills are critical to that agenda: whether we are growing our clean energy cluster, expanding our health and care workforce, or supporting the marine and defence industries around Plymouth, the South Devon coast, and the North Devon coast, we need a talent pipeline that can respond to local opportunity. This skills agenda will also complement future investment plans under the ASF, Innovation and Net Zero programmes, ensuring joined-up delivery and efficient use of devolved budgets. 

It also connects with the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working Plan, which focuses on reducing economic inactivity, tackling barriers to work, and improving job quality. That plan will take forward the employment dimension, while this plan provides the skills foundations so that once people are ready to work, they can find progression, security, and opportunity through learning. 

The plan will also support the rollout of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, which will expand access to flexible, modular learning at higher levels. While DTCCA won’t oversee its delivery, alignment with local priorities will be important to maximise its impact on participation and progression across Devon and Torbay. 

The Case for Change 

The skills system in Devon and Torbay faces deep structural and spatial challenges that limit both individual opportunity and regional economic growth. 

Qualification and Progression Gaps

Across Devon and Torbay, too many people remain locked out of opportunity due to low qualification levels and limited progression into further learning. While headline participation in education is stable, the depth and level of attainment fall short of what our economy requires. 

• Only 37.9% of adults in Torbay are qualified to Level 4 or above, compared to the UK average of 43.6%. The figures for Devon are higher but still trail comparable areas with similar sectoral profiles. Progression from Level 3 to higher-level learning is also 5% lower than the national average, particularly among disadvantaged groups and in rural or coastal areas. These gaps limit access to higher paid employment and reduce the region’s ability to meet the skills demands of its evolving economy.  
• In North Devon, over 20% of the working-age population holds no formal qualifications or only Level 1 qualifications, significantly reducing their earning potential and ability to progress. 
• Young people not achieving Level 2 by age 19 – particularly in Torbay and parts of Torridge –face a severe drop-off in participation. While a range of Level 2 and below provision already exists, it is not always well-targeted or accessible to those who need it most. There is a need to better align basic and functional skills delivery, including English, Maths and digital, with the needs of disengaged learners, particularly in rural, coastal or disadvantaged communities. Devolved commissioning provides the opportunity to ensure this existing provision is more responsive, better promoted, and embedded within clear progression routes, such as vocational training or Foundation Apprenticeships. 
• Adults with Level 3 qualifications in Devon are 5% less likely to progress to higher learning than the national average, reflecting limited access to progression pathways and employer-sponsored upskilling routes. 

These gaps are not evenly distributed. Disparities are particularly stark in coastal and remote rural areas, where lower school attainment is compounded by the absence of accessible adult education, careers support, and higher-level training. Residents in these areas face structural barriers that constrain both aspiration and access to progression. These gaps also disproportionately affect certain groups including care-experienced young people, learners with a health-related barrier to progression, and those living in rural and coastal communities where access to learning remains difficult. 

Without sustained action, these qualification gaps risk becoming entrenched generationally, reinforcing inequality and limiting the ability of local people to benefit from future growth sectors or meaningful employment. Addressing these gaps will require a more coherent pipeline from entry-level to higher-level learning, backed by stronger employer partnerships and a shared performance framework to monitor outcomes. The DTCCA will use its new commissioning powers to set measurable targets for progression, ensuring that more learners move from basic skills into vocational, technical and higher routes. 

Pockets of Economic Inactivity and Disconnection

While employment rates across the region may appear healthy on paper, beneath the surface lie deep pockets of economic inactivity and structural disconnection from the labour market. Skills shortfalls, health issues, caring responsibilities, and transport constraints combine to create high barriers to re-entry. 

• Economic inactivity among people aged 50–64 in Devon and Torbay is rising, with nearly 27% of this cohort out of work and not seeking employment – many due to health conditions or skills redundancy. 
• Torbay has one of the highest levels of economic inactivity in the Southwest among working-age adults, at 22.1%, well above the regional average of 17.5%. 
• In rural areas such as West Devon and Torridge, digital exclusion and long distances to learning centres further isolate adults from re-engagement opportunities. 
• Those who are economically inactive often face multiple barriers – a lack of digital skills, mental and physical health needs, or a lack of recent experience – and require tailored, multi-agency support. 

Critically, the current skills offer still does not fully support people who are furthest from the labour market. While high-quality entry-level provision is available across the area, it often faces challenges in engaging all economically inactive adults. Greater community-based delivery, contextualised learning, and clearer progression routes into sector-specific pathways are needed. A focus on quality, reach and learner experience is essential to re-engage those who have been failed by traditional models. There also remain significant gaps in provision for SEND adults, young people with more complex backgrounds, and for those with long-term health conditions or care experience. 

We also need better pathways into sectors where re-entry is viable and meaningful – including health and social care, tourism, retail and logistics – sectors that offer stepping stones into work and self-employment, but which require sustained support to enable access. 

While the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working Plan will take the lead in coordinating employment pathways, this plan must ensure that a flexible and inclusive learning infrastructure exists to support re-entry into work. Tackling inactivity is also not solely about courses or qualifications; it demands integration across health, housing, and employment support. Under devolution, the DTCCA will coordinate partners through the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working framework, embedding joint accountability and shared data to track re-engagement outcome. 

Uneven Access to Training and Provision

Devon and Torbay’s dispersed geography poses unique challenges for equitable skills delivery. With a large rural footprint and coastal isolation, many communities face barriers to accessing even basic learning opportunities – let alone specialised training or higher-level qualifications. 

• Learners in rural areas such as North Dartmoor, Holsworthy, and South Hams may face over 90 minutes of travel to reach their nearest FE campus or training centre – a barrier exacerbated by limited public transport options. 
• Torbay, despite being an urban centre and South Devon College’s TEF Gold HE offer has fewer HE-in-FE routes than comparable places such as Exeter, limiting opportunities for local progression into higher-level technical pathways. 
• FE provision is concentrated in key centres such as Exeter, Barnstaple, and Torbay, with limited outreach or satellite provision in areas of highest need. Providers report the cost of rural outreach as a key disincentive to expanding the offer. 
• Digital learning has expanded, but up to 16% of households in some rural wards still lack access to stable broadband or appropriate devices – particularly affecting older learners and low-income families. 

This creates a postcode lottery in access to adult and post-16 learning. While some learners benefit from a rich offer, others are left with patchy provision, or none at all. This is not just a geographic challenge – it’s also an economic one. Young people from more affluent households may have access to private transport or parental support, while others are left behind.  

Rural and coastal localities in particular often face significant viability challenges around provision, especially where low learner numbers or transport costs undermine local delivery models. Working together to maintain post-16 access through partnership, joint delivery, and use of community venues is essential to ensure no learner is excluded due to where they live or their financial circumstances. 

Misalignment Between Provision and Economic Opportunity

Too often, the local skills offer is not aligned with the jobs that exist or the industries that are growing. This disconnect limits business growth, slows progression, and leads to missed opportunities for both learners and employers. 

• Employers across Devon and Torbay regularly report skills shortages in health and social care, construction, logistics, marine engineering, clean energy, and hospitality. Many of these are growth sectors locally, yet apprenticeship take-up and technical training in these fields remain low. 
• In some priority sectors – such as digital and advanced manufacturing – employers note that training is too generic or not up to date with current technology and working practices. Smaller firms in particular find off-the-shelf courses poorly suited to their needs. 
• The DTCCA area has seen a 20% drop in adult apprenticeship starts over the past three years, particularly in rural areas and in higher-level frameworks. 
• Too few providers offer modular or bite-sized learning that supports reskilling or career transitions – especially important for older workers or those displaced by automation and economic restructuring. 
• There is a need to engage cohorts with untapped potential, including individuals with English as a second language. The ASFs updated eligibility criteria from 2026/27 create new opportunities to reach and support these learners through expanded English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision. This cohort includes many with prior skills and qualifications from their home countries, who with targeted language support, can help meet local labour market demand. 

The absence of a coordinated employer-facing system – one that can match skills delivery to real demand – means missed economic potential. A more responsive and tailored offer, underpinned by better data, employer partnerships, and devolved flexibility, is needed to ensure that local people can access the jobs being created on their doorstep. 

Devolution provides the flexibility to commission responsive, sector-aligned training, co-designed with employers and updated annually against labour market data.  

Fragmented System Leadership and Partnership Working

Although Devon and Torbay are home to many high-performing providers and proactive partners, the overall system lacks the coherence, agility and joint accountability required for effective planning and delivery. Siloed funding, disconnected oversight, and inconsistent data sharing limit impact. 

• Strategic decision-making is dispersed across local authorities, colleges, universities, regional agencies, and employment services, with no single forum responsible for joining the dots. 
• While there are examples of good collaboration – such as the LSIP Steering Group or Careers Hub Boards – these are not embedded across the system. Engagement with employers can be duplicated, fragmented, or inconsistent. 
• Providers report frustration at short-term funding cycles and lack of clarity around longer-term strategic priorities, which limits their ability to innovate or invest. 
• Labour market intelligence is not routinely shared across the system, meaning that curriculum planning, outreach, and support services are not always informed by the best available data. 
• Learning providers, employers and community partners all report a need for more joined-up working – not only between major institutions, but with local delivery partners who play a vital role in reaching disadvantaged communities. 

The creation of the DTCCA presents a major opportunity to fix this by leading the skills system with the mandate and visibility to coordinate activity, reduce duplication, and deliver real impact for learners and employers. 

In summary, Devon and Torbay’s challenges are clear: entrenched qualification gaps, uneven access, low progression, and fragmented leadership. Yet through devolution we now have the means to address them – aligning funding, intelligence and governance to build a skills system that is inclusive, data-driven, and locally led. The following sections set out how that transformation will be delivered in practice. 

Strategic Priorities  

The previous section presented a compelling case for change: Devon and Torbay’s skills system is not yet sufficiently responsive to local needs – whether those of employers, learners, or wider communities. Addressing this demands more than incremental improvement. It requires reorientation of investment, delivery and collaboration, driven by a shared understanding of where we are and where we need to go. Delivery of these priorities will be overseen by the Skills and Employment Advisory Group, using a shared outcomes framework that tracks participation, progression and employer engagement across the region. 

The four strategic priorities outlined here form the basis of that transformation. Each one builds directly on the challenges identified in the evidence base, draws from employer and provider insight, and aligns with the ambitions set out in the Local Growth Plan and the Industrial Strategy.  

Each priority embeds a commitment to economic inclusion as a prerequisite for sustainable, place-based growth. This includes a deliberate focus on learners facing multiple barriers to progression, and those in rural or disadvantaged communities. 

Priority 1 – Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow 

If Devon and Torbay are to meet their future workforce needs, we must ensure that young people are supported to thrive – wherever they live, and whatever their starting point. Yet too many young people are being lost from the system, either disengaging at 16 or failing to make a successful transition into work or further training after post-16 education. These issues are most acute in Torbay, North Devon and isolated coastal and rural areas, but they exist across the region. 

The Local Growth Plan identifies major replacement demand in sectors such as health and care, hospitality, logistics, and education with roles which are often critical to community resilience, but which suffer from chronic recruitment difficulties and persistent misperceptions among young people. Employers consistently report challenges in attracting local applicants with the right skills, attitudes and support. 

Meanwhile, too many young people face multiple barriers: attainment gaps, transport challenges, limited access to careers advice, and a lack of visible, accessible vocational pathways. Those with care experience, learners with a health-related barrier to progression, and those without strong family or community support are particularly at risk of being left behind. Learning providers and institutions need the capacity, flexibility and partnership working to support these young people more effectively. 

This plan will support a new approach to developing the workforce of tomorrow by: 

• Creating coherent, sector-focused pathways from 14 -19+, especially in care, construction, engineering, hospitality, and education — areas of clear local demand. 
• Expanding T Level, apprenticeship and vocational training capacity in underserved parts of the region, ensuring young people have meaningful options. 
• Strengthening partnerships with local transport providers and authorities to improve the affordability and availability of travel to learning and employment hubs, particularly for young people and learners in rural areas. 
• Supporting the Youth Guarantee Pilots to prevent disengagement and improve transitions. These pilots offer a vital opportunity to test and scale approaches that reduce drop-out rates at 16 and improve progression into meaningful post-16 destinations. 
• Deepening employer engagement in schools and FE, including through the Careers Hub, to provide earlier, more sustained exposure to the world of work. 
• Investing in re-engagement programmes for those not in education or training, with targeted provision in NEET hotspots like Ilfracombe, Brixham and Barnstaple. 
• Improving transitions for those with complex needs, including supported internships, job coaching, and enhanced provision for learners with health-related barriers to progression. 
• Map and promote clear routes from T Levels, apprenticeships, and vocational Level 3 programmes into Level 4+ qualifications, including part-time and work-based options. 
• Promotion of the new Growth and Skills Levy that provides an opportunity for employers to use their Levy funds on modular, short, and non-apprenticeship training. With particular focus in supporting Industrial Strategy sectors such as digital, advanced AI and engineering, with starts from April 2026.    
• Facilitate collaboration to co-design curriculum, offer placements, and ensure qualifications reflect real-world job roles and progression opportunities. 
• Strengthening collaboration between FE and HE to create clearer, locally relevant pathways into higher education, particularly in sectors with acute skills shortages such as health, digital, and green technologies. 

By creating a more accessible, better aligned and properly supported system for young people, we can rebuild confidence, improve progression, and help meet the future needs of our economy. Progress will be measured through reduced NEET rates, increased Level 3–4 attainment, and improved employer satisfaction with school-to-work pathways. 

Priority 2 – Creating a More Productive Workforce 

The productivity gap in Devon and Torbay is one of the most persistent structural weaknesses in the local economy. Gross Value Added (GVA) per head lags behind national levels, and the workforce is characterised by high levels of underemployment, part-time work, and a concentration in lower-paid roles.  

Raising productivity will not be achieved through growth alone and depends on ensuring that more residents can access and progress through meaningful, skilled work. The Local Growth Plan identifies sectors with high potential for improved productivity and wage growth, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, construction, engineering, and digital. These sectors require higher-level technical skills, flexible upskilling models, and greater employer commitment to workforce development. 

At the same time, the demographic profile of the region is shifting. The working-age population is forecast to remain largely static, while the over-65 population is projected to grow substantially. This means future economic growth will depend not on more people, but on enabling the existing workforce to contribute more fully – through skills, technology, and smarter job design.  

This includes providing attractive employment offers to over-65s who wish to remain economically active. At the same time, we must encourage a culture of employer-led skills development.  

Employers cannot be passive recipients of talent – they must also play an active role in developing the skilled workforce they need, through investment in training, apprenticeships, and progression pathways. By creating environments that value creativity, adaptability, and continuous learning, employers can help shape a future workforce that is both resilient and productive. Supporting businesses to embed these principles will be essential to unlocking demand for higher-level skills and creating meaningful opportunities for progression. 

To support a more productive workforce, this plan will support measures like: 

• Scale up adult reskilling and upskilling provision in priority sectors, including flexible pathways to Level 3 and 4 for adults already in work. 
• Embed progression opportunities into every level of learning – ensuring that entry-level roles can be a stepping stone to in-work progression. 
• Invest in workforce development capacity, working with employers, colleges, and training providers to co-design delivery around business needs. 
• Improve access for adults with caring responsibilities or long-term health conditions, with modular, blended and bite-sized delivery. 
• Use devolved funding levers to address inactivity, including commissioning for outcomes in areas with high economic exclusion (e.g. Torridge, Torbay). 
• Tackle digital exclusion and basic skills gaps, which remain a barrier to participation and productivity in many parts of the region. 
• Supporting pathways into self-employment and entrepreneurship, particularly for residents in rural areas and those in sectors such as tourism, crafts, and care. 
• Support employers to embed innovation and inclusive workforce culture as drivers of skills demand. 
• Promote access to Level 4 and above qualifications through flexible, modular learning routes – including higher technical qualifications and foundation degrees – that support adult progression into high economic value roles and meet the skills needs of priority sectors. 

A more productive workforce will mean not just better outcomes for employers, but improved household incomes, job satisfaction, and stronger foundations for inclusive growth. Impact will be tracked via progression from Level 2–3 and Level 3–4 learning, wage growth in priority sectors, and the number of adults completing modular upskilling or reskilling provision. 

Priority 3 – Supporting the Growth and Diversification of the Economy 

The Local Growth Plan sets out a clear economic vision: to drive innovation, raise productivity, and transition to a net zero economy. The region has real strengths to build on including leadership in marine autonomy, defence, clean energy, photonics, agri-tech and life sciences. But these sectors are often held back by skills shortages, fragmented training provision, and a lack of awareness among potential learners. 

The Industrial Strategy reinforces this message, pointing to the need for higher technical skills, increased capacity for innovation, and closer collaboration between employers and training institutions to ensure skills provision is suitable for local industrial and sectoral needs. For example, the growth of offshore renewables in North Devon will demand hundreds of skilled engineers and technicians over the next decade. The transition to greener homes and infrastructure will require a new workforce trained in retrofit, low-carbon heating, and sustainable construction. And digital skills ranging from coding to cyber-security are now essential across all sectors. 

However, these opportunities will only be realised if the skills system is capable of responding at pace. That means building capacity, aligning curricula, and ensuring that learners from all backgrounds can access high economic value pathways. 

To support economic transition, we will: 

• Support the development of Centres of Excellence in key sectors, including marine and defence in Plymouth, green skills in South Devon, construction and digital in Exeter. 
• Expand Level 4–5 training capacity in technical disciplines, in partnership with local HE, FE, ITPs, and employers — for example, through Institutes of Technology (IoTs) in areas such as engineering, construction, agri-tech, digital and cyber security 
• Build on existing innovation assets to drive sector growth and skills development – including the EPIC Centre, Exeter Science Park and the Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre.  
• Use the Adult Skills Fund to prioritise green, digital and technical pathways, particularly where market failure is evident or provision is lacking. 
• Promote sector awareness among learners, through targeted marketing, employer visits, and experiential taster programmes. 
• Link skills investment to major capital and infrastructure projects, including Freeport developments, housing retrofit, and green energy initiatives. 
• Support small and micro employers to participate in training and skills development – particularly where capacity and resource constraints currently act as a barrier. 

Priority 4 – Creating Opportunity for All 

Despite overall high employment, too many people in Devon and Torbay remain trapped in cycles of low pay, poor health, or economic inactivity. The geography of deprivation is stark: pockets of deep exclusion exist not only in urban centres like Torbay but in rural and coastal communities where transport, broadband and services are limited.  

Without concerted action to reduce inequality, we will not have the workforce we need or meet our goals on growth or productivity. Economic inclusion must be a core principle of the devolved skills system. That means recognising that many residents need more than a course – they need holistic, joined-up support that helps them overcome complex, overlapping barriers to learning and work.  

Access to opportunity must also include access to physically reach it, which is why transport and mobility planning will be embedded in our place-based approach, particularly where infrastructure or cost present significant barriers to participation. 

This plan will drive inclusive growth by supporting actions that are: 

• Targeting funding to areas of high need, including Torbay, North Devon, and rural towns with persistent disadvantage. 
• Commissioning community-based, accessible provision, working with Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners and other trusted local anchors. Whereby, community learning, such as tailored learning through the ASF, can provide accessible and impactful learning to smaller learner cohorts. 
• Embedding wraparound support into skills delivery, including links to housing, mental health, childcare and financial advice. 
• Creating routes back into work for economically inactive adults, especially older workers, disabled people, and carers. 
• Promoting clear, supported pathways into sectors like care, health, tourism and retail – particularly for residents returning to work or starting a new career later in life. 
• Expanding VCSE involvement, as anchor institutions, in co-designing and delivering learning opportunities, ensuring provision is rooted in community needs and accessible to underrepresented groups. 
• Integrate HE and FE providers into inclusive skills planning, ensuring that advanced learning opportunities are tailored to local barriers and supported by VCSE partners to reach underrepresented groups. 

Delivery will be monitored through locally disaggregated data on participation and outcomes for priority groups including disabled residents, care-experienced learners, and those in coastal or rural areas. 

Calls to Action 

The following six Calls to Action set out the most important priorities for implementing this Skills and Future Workforce Plan. Each is grounded in robust evidence and place-based insight and is focused explicitly on addressing systemic weaknesses and structural gaps in the local skills system.  

While these interventions contribute to broader ambitions around economic growth, labour market inclusion, and social mobility, they are skills-led and aimed at improving how learning is commissioned, delivered, accessed and aligned to need. Each Call to Action will have defined outcome indicators, delivery partners and annual milestones, and regularly reported upon. 

Together, the six Calls to Action represent a delivery framework for the four Strategic Priorities of this plan. They also draw directly on the actions recommended in the university-led evidence base which includes delivery models such as Skill Up Devon and Torbay, a Hub and Spoke approach to adult learning, and a Devon and Torbay Digital Task Force. These proposals have been embedded within a wider strategic narrative and aligned with other local plans, including the Growth Plan, LSIP, Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working Plan, and the Connect to Work programme. 

Expand and Reform the 14–19 Skills Offer to Secure the Future Workforce

Strategic Priority: Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow 

Rationale: 
Devon and Torbay face an urgent challenge in ensuring young people are equipped for the future labour market. The region has a higher proportion of young people leaving education without key qualifications, and a significant share becoming NEET. Progression into technical and vocational routes remains low, and too many schools lack strong employer connections.  

The strategic response must be proactive: building aspiration, strengthening the 14–19 offer, and ensuring young people are supported to access meaningful careers in local growth sectors. This must include tailored support for care-experienced young people and those with a health-related barrier to progression – groups often furthest from opportunity yet most in need of sustained, personalised pathways. 

Key actions include: 

• Expanding access to T Levels, apprenticeships, bootcamps and technical education – particularly in digital, health, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and engineering. 
• Launching Skill Up Devon and Torbay to provide integrated, impartial guidance and support from Year 9 onwards. 
• Strengthening employer-school partnerships to improve work experience and career-readiness. Enhancing progression pathways from FE to HE, especially for disadvantaged learners and rural communities. 
• Ensuring young people from all backgrounds have the chance to access the full spectrum of careers the Growth Plan identifies as essential to future prosperity. 
• Targeting support and re-engagement activity in NEET hotspots, and for young people who have additional vulnerabilities — including those with SEND or who are care-experienced. 

Delivery of this call will be led jointly by the Careers Hub and wider partners, with progress tracked through NEET reduction rates, Level 3 attainment, and employer participation in work-related learning. 

Increase Participation and Progression in Adult Skills Across the Region 

Strategic Priorities: Creating a More Productive Workforce and Creating Opportunity for All 

Rationale: 
Devon and Torbay’s adult workforce faces two interlinked challenges: a large proportion of adults lack Level 3+ qualifications, and many face practical barriers to returning to learning. Economic inactivity is above national levels in some areas, and rural and coastal communities often have limited access to skills provision. Self-employment and work in small businesses remain core parts of the local economy — yet few targeted upskilling opportunities currently support this. 

This call to action seeks to rebuild confidence in learning and increase progression into training and work — with a flexible, responsive delivery model that reaches people where they are.  

Key actions include: 

• Delivering adult training via a Hub and Spoke model, using libraries, community venues, Work Hubs and digital channels to improve accessibility. 
• Prioritising delivery in rural, coastal and deprived urban areas — with modular, part-time and evening options to suit learners’ lives. 
• Ensure that existing Level 2 and below provision is more deliberately targeted, using learner data and labour market intelligence to commission high-impact delivery that supports progression. This includes aligning functional skills and ESOL delivery with identified barriers and re-entry routes into employment or vocational learning. 
• Linking training to local sector demand (e.g. construction, green economy, social care, digital). 
• Work with local transport services to explore travel vouchers, subsidised routes, or on-demand services that improve access to adult learning in isolated communities. 
• Applying a ‘rural premium’ to recognise and support the increased costs of delivering adult learning in geographically isolated areas. This could include enhanced funding rates or commissioning incentives to ensure sustainability and reach. 
• Recognising informal and community-based learning as valid entry points into formal training, especially for those furthest from the system. 
• Enhancing wraparound support – including childcare, digital access, mentoring and wellbeing support – to reduce dropout and increase progression.  
• Encouraging joint curriculum planning, credit transfer, and shared delivery models between FE colleges and universities to support lifelong learning and career mobility. 
• Promoting part-time, hybrid, and employer led HE routes that are accessible to adult learners and those in rural or coastal areas. 

Implementation will be coordinated through the new Hub-and-Spoke Delivery Network managed by the DTCCA. Performance metrics will include adult participation by postcode, progression from Level 2 to Level 3, and re-engagement of economically inactive adults. A public Skills Intelligence Dashboard will show live results from 2026 onward. 

Align Skills Provision to Key Growth Sectors 

Strategic Priority: Supporting Economic Growth and Diversification 

Rationale: 
Devon and Torbay’s economy is overly reliant on low-pay, low-productivity sectors, with an underrepresentation of high-GVA industries such as digital, financial services and clean energy. To rebalance and grow the economy, the region must proactively align skills provision to growth opportunities – investing in people as the route to productivity, innovation and sustainability. 

As Devon and Torbay transition to net zero, the region must also prepare its workforce for the realities of climate adaptation – equipping individuals and businesses with the skills to respond to environmental risks, build resilience, and support sustainable infrastructure and community planning. 

Key actions include: 

• Establishing a Devon and Torbay Digital Task Force to raise awareness, build digital capacity and link learners with employer needs. 
• Expanding sector-specific pathways into priority areas identified in the Growth Plan, such as green construction, clean maritime, engineering and health tech. 
• Building FE and HE partnerships to create technical Centres of Excellence aligned to regional strengths. 
• Encourage embedding green and digital skills in all vocational curricula – not just niche pathways. 
• Targeting skills investment at Levels 3–5 to address technician and supervisory gaps in key sectors. 
• Tailoring provision to small and micro business needs, with flexible delivery models, short courses, and employer-led input to design. 

Build an Inclusive Skills System That Tackles Disadvantage and Disconnection

Strategic Priority: Creating Opportunity for All 

Rationale: 
The skills system in Devon and Torbay must be accessible to everyone and not just those already on the path to employment. High levels of economic inactivity, particularly in rural and coastal areas, overlap with poor health outcomes, housing challenges, digital exclusion and isolation. Many residents face multiple barriers that prevent them engaging with skills, and these must be actively addressed through a place-based, person-centred model. 

Key actions include: 

• Embedding skills access into wider systems through multi-agency partnerships – with Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Jobcentre Plus, housing services and VCSE organisations. 
• Aligning activity with the Connect to Work programme and Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working Plan to support those furthest from the labour market. 
• Using Skill Up Devon and Torbay to deliver inclusive outreach – particularly for NEETs, care experienced young people, people with health-related barriers to progression, and those in insecure housing or caring roles. 
• Commissioning VCSE organisations to co-deliver and co-design learning, to ensure provision is community-rooted and accessible. 
• Leveraging VCSE networks to reach underrepresented groups and provide holistic wraparound support that addresses barriers to participation. 

Strengthen Employer Leadership and System Collaboration in Skills Planning

Strategic Priorities: Supporting Economic Growth and Diversification and Creating a More Productive Workforce 

Rationale: 
A modern, responsive skills system must be shaped by the evolving needs of employers and sectors. In Devon and Torbay, this requires better data, clearer roles, and stronger partnerships across education, business and local government. It also requires employers to take more responsibility for workforce development, progression and inclusion. 

Key actions include: 

• Developing a local business intelligence function to gather and apply real-time data on skills demand, working closely with the LSIP. 
• Coordinating employer engagement through Skill Up Devon and Torbay and the Careers Hub, focusing on priority sectors from the Growth Plan. 
• Supporting a stronger tertiary relationship between FE and HE  
• Hosting regular employer-provider events to co-design provision and progression routes. 

Target Skills Investment to Maximise Impact and Drive Inclusion

Strategic Priorities: All four — with emphasis on Creating a More Productive Workforce and Creating Opportunity for All 

Rationale: 
With devolved powers comes the opportunity to invest differently. This action focuses on using the ASF and other devolved levers to commission provision that meets local need, drives progression, and supports inclusive growth. It is about being smarter, bolder and more transparent in how investment decisions are made and measured. 

Key actions include: 

• Prioritising funding for high-need areas and groups identified in the evidence base including NEETs, older workers, rural communities and low-skilled adults. 
• Commissioning modular and progression-focused delivery that aligns with employer demand and learner aspirations. 
• Piloting new models of delivery, co-designed with learners and communities. 
• Tracking outcomes rigorously including progression into further learning, work or better jobs. 
• Linking all investment decisions to the Growth Plan, LSIP and Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working priorities, with a clear line of sight from spend to impact. 

Place Based Focus  

A genuinely effective skills system must be one that meets people where they are – geographically, socially, and economically. That means ensuring access to skills and training is not confined to colleges or large towns, but dispersed across the region. It also means adapting delivery models to reflect the local economy, using insights from employers and community groups to shape provision, as well as enabling joint working between learning providers and institutions to maintain viable, accessible delivery in hard-to-reach localities.  

This section sets out how place-based delivery will be implemented across Devon and Torbay through a mix of targeted local provision, infrastructure, community partnerships, sectoral alignment and locally tailored outreach. These actions are essential to achieving the four strategic priorities of this plan: developing the future workforce, supporting a productive labour market, growing and diversifying the economy, and driving economic inclusion. 

Understanding and Targeting Local Needs

Across Devon and Torbay, the social and economic geography presents specific and layered challenges: 

• In Torbay, North Devon and Torridge, there are longstanding issues with low participation in further education, higher numbers of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), and significant concentrations of deprivation and unemployment. 
• Rural districts such as South Hams, Mid Devon and West Devon experience lower levels of physical access to training centres, poor public transport links, and often limited digital connectivity making progression difficult even for motivated learners. 
• In many places, skills gaps are compounded by demographic pressures such as an ageing population, declining youth cohort, and rising economic inactivity among older adults and carers. 

The DTCCA will address this by targeting skills provision and investment directly into these communities, ensuring that learning opportunities are responsive to local need. This will include: 

• Developing neighbourhood-level assessments of need, based on data and local insight. These will be refreshed annually and published online. 
• Commissioning adult learning and sector-specific training that reflects local economic profiles. 
• Supporting providers to develop outreach models and mobile services. 
• Integrating skills planning with local transport, housing and digital access strategies. 
• Supporting tailored provision for learners with care experience, health-related barriers to progression, or other complex circumstances. 

Skills outcomes will include: 

• Higher participation rates in further education among young people in coastal and deprived areas. 
  • KPI: 10% increase in FE enrolments in priority wards by 2030 
• Increased uptake of Level 2 and Level 3 courses among adults in rural locations. 
  • KPI: 15% increase in Level 2–3 enrolments in rural postcodes by 2030 
• Measurable reductions in inactivity and NEET status in target wards and districts. 
  • KPI: 20% reduction in NEET rates in Torbay, North Devon, and Torridge by 2030 

Delivering Through a Hub and Spoke Learning Model

At the heart of the place-based plan is a new Hub and Spoke model for adult learning. This will ensure that all residents — regardless of location — can access high-quality skills provision in their own communities. It will: 

• Use a network of existing spaces such as libraries, community centres, town halls and Devon Work Hubs as delivery venues; 
• Support the development of mobile or pop-up provision in very rural or isolated locations; 
• Work with transport commissioners to align routes and timetables with learning venues, and pilot subsidised access schemes where feasible; 
• Build capacity for interactive, learner-focussed, and well structured virtual and hybrid learning models, supported by technology  to create accessible, engaging and effective learning experiences; 
• Deliver modular, flexible courses that support both formal qualifications and informal learning. 

Each Hub will serve as a focal point for multiple surrounding Spokes, enabling a layered, accessible and coherent adult learning offer across the county. Provision will include: 

• Targeted entry-level and functional skills (Maths, English, digital), with a stronger focus on engaging priority learners and linking delivery to local employment pathways. 
• Sector-specific short courses (linked to Growth Plan priorities such as health, care, digital, agri-tech and construction). 
• Progression advice and coaching. 
• Support for learners with additional needs — including carers, those with health-related barriers to progression and those young people who have experienced care.  

Skills outcomes will include: 

• Increased enrolment and completion of adult education courses in non-traditional venues. 
  • KPI: 5,000 learners enrolled via Hub and Spoke venues by end of 2030 
• Higher rates of progression from community learning to employment or further study.  
  • KPI: By 2028, 60% of learners progress to further learning or employment within 6 months 
• Improved reach and retention among learners facing complex barriers. 
  • KPI: 80% retention rate among priority cohorts (e.g. carers, disabled learners) by 2030. 

Skill Up Devon and Torbay: A Local Entry Point for All

To improve visibility and coordination of the system, the DTCCA will establish a Skill Up Devon and Torbay service as the gateway to skills and training across the region. This service will: 

• Act as a locally accessible hub for advice, information and referral into courses; 
• Target young people (particularly those aged 14–25), care leavers, NEETs, and low-income adults; 
• Integrate with the Careers Hub, youth hubs, schools, colleges, and local employers; 
• Embed progression support, including coaching, mentoring, and employer engagement. 

The model will operate as a decentralised but consistent service, ensuring that the same high standard of guidance and connection to opportunity is available in Barnstaple, Brixham, Cullompton, and across every community in between. 

Skills outcomes will include: 

• Stronger transitions from education into apprenticeships, T Levels and employment; 
  • KPI: 15% increase in transitions from post-16 education into apprenticeships or employment by 2030 
• Reduced NEET figures across the DTCCA footprint;  
  • KPI: 20% reduction in NEET rates among 16–25-year-olds in priority wards by 2030  
• Higher visibility and take-up of skills offers among economically inactive residents. 
  • KPI: 4,000 economically inactive residents engaged through Skill Up Devon and Torbay by end of 2030

Sector-Specific Skills Delivery by Place

The Local Growth Plan identifies a number of high-potential and bedrock sectors for growth. These sectors are not evenly distributed across the region and neither should the skills response be. Provision must reflect spatial sectoral footprints, aligning training with local employer need. 

The skills plan is also aligned with the UK Industrial Strategy 2025, which emphasises place-based growth, foundational industries, and green transition and it will: 

• Commission FE, HE, and ITP partners to deliver provision aligned to sector geographies; 
• Develop new bootcamps and modular provision in partnership with industry; 
• Target skills capital investment to address gaps in local infrastructure. 

Support the development of Technical Excellence Colleges in the South West. Expand green skills training, particularly in retrofit and low-carbon housing, to meet rising demand for technical roles in the built environment, while also strengthening capabilities in cyber, AI, and advanced manufacturing.  This coordinated approach will help equip the region’s workforce for the transition to net zero and bolster its strategic position in emerging industries. Examples include: 

• Defence and marine in Plymouth – building upon the content of the defence review and the city’s expertise; 
• Clean maritime and photonics in South Devon and Torbay – training in engineering, electronics, and marine technologies; 
• Clean maritime in North Devon – with skills opportunities linked to the Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre; 
• Advanced manufacturing in Exeter, East Devon and Teignbridge – with a focus on composites, robotics and production; 
• Health and social care across all areas – with new care sector pathways and clinical support training in Torbay, Torridge and North Devon; 
• Agri-tech and food security in Mid, East Devon and North Devon – building on land-based qualifications and rural skills; 
• Climate-resilient land management across rural Devon and Torbay – supporting skills in agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, habitat restoration, and soil science, in line with the Devon Carbon Plan’s call for expertise in agronomics and crop advisory roles to help farming adapt to a changing climate; 
• Sustainable agriculture and agri-innovation across farming communities in Devon and Torbay – helping farmers and land-based workers gain skills in sustainable farming, new technology, and low-carbon practices to support food production, food security and protect the environment.  
• Digital and creative clusters in Exeter and Totnes – including coding, content creation, and AI awareness; 
• Tourism and visitor economy training in West Devon, South Hams, Torbay and coastal communities – recognising the importance of this sector to self-employment and micro-enterprise; 

Skills outcomes will include: 

• Higher progression into jobs in Growth Plan and Industrial Strategy priority sectors; 
  • KPI: 15% increase in job placements in priority sectors by 2030 
• Increased local recruitment into technical and professional roles; 
  • KPI: 20% increase in the number of residents recruited into technical/professional roles by 2030 
• Reduced skills shortages reported in targeted industries. 
  • KPI: 40% reduction in employer-reported skills gaps in health, care, digital, and construction sectors by 2030 

Supporting Disadvantaged and Isolated Learners

Reaching disadvantaged learners is both a social priority and an economic necessity. This plan will ensure that every community — including those in coastal towns, rural villages, and low-income urban areas — has clear, supported and accessible routes into learning. 

Key actions include: 

• Embedding training in familiar venues such as food banks, housing offices, and GP surgeries; 
• Providing digital access and connectivity alongside entry-level training; 
• Developing targeted outreach services, particularly for carers, disabled people and older residents; 
• Working with the NHS and community providers to integrate health and learning support. 
• Expanding ESOL delivery in community venues and aligning with employment pathways, particularly in sectors facing acute shortages such as social care, logistics and hospitality. 

These actions will align closely with the Connect to Work programme and the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working Plan, ensuring that learning is connected to real pathways into employment and independence.  

Skills outcomes will include: 

• Increased re-engagement among adults with low or no qualifications; 
  • KPI: 5,000 adults with no formal qualifications re-engaged by 2030 
• More learners with multiple barriers accessing and completing training; 
  • KPI: 70% completion rate among learners with health-related or care-related barriers by 2030 
• Strengthened links between health improvement and skills progression. 
  • KPI: 80% of learners accessing integrated health-skills support report improved wellbeing by 2030. 

Enablers of Delivery – Making the Plan Happen 

Realising the ambitions of this Skills and Future Workforce Plan will require more than good intentions and high-level planning. It will demand the right enablers – including funding, partnership working, infrastructure, data, and a capable delivery workforce. 

Devon and Torbay already have many of the components in place: high-quality learning providers and institutions, a proactive VCSE sector, growing employer engagement, and emerging networks in digital, transport, and employment support. The local footprint also includes innovative small and micro businesses who are ready to contribute – provided they are given the tools, flexibility and support to engage in skills delivery. Self-employment also remains a key feature of the local labour market, especially in sectors such as tourism, care, and construction, and needs to be reflected in delivery and investment decisions. 

However, more must be done to coordinate, align, and invest in the system to ensure it delivers meaningful results for residents, employers and communities across the area – particularly those currently underserved by traditional models. This includes learners with a health-related barrier to progression, care-experienced young people, and those facing multiple disadvantage. 

This section sets out the core enablers that will support successful plan delivery. These are strategic levers that must be developed, strengthened and used to unlock the system’s full potential. All are interdependent, and all require committed local leadership. They must also be capable of responding to the evolving landscape of devolution and public service reform, ensuring the system remains flexible and future ready. 

Investment and Funding Flexibility

The DTCCA provides a unique opportunity to shape and invest in the skills system with greater local control. The devolution of the ASF from 2026/27 will enable Devon and Torbay to: 

• Ensure existing Level 2 and below provision is more tightly targeted – through better use of local data, clearer expectations on learner engagement, and commissioning linked to progression outcomes, particularly for vulnerable and underserved groups; 
• Commission adult skills provision based on place-based and sectoral needs; 
• Provide multi-year stability and flexibility for local training providers; 
• Better align funding to economic inclusion outcomes, especially in disadvantaged areas; 
• Trial innovative models (such as modular and community-based provision) that national rules might previously have constrained. 

However, funding from the ASF alone will not be sufficient. Delivering this plan will require careful alignment and co-investment across a range of sources, including: 

• Future place-based funds, for capital and innovation projects; 
• Local authority resources and regeneration funding; 
• NHS, Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and housing support funding for wraparound learner support; 
• Employer contributions, especially through apprenticeships, bootcamps and in-kind placements; 
• Trusts, foundations and philanthropic contributions for inclusion-focused initiatives. 

A key focus will be ensuring that funding reaches those groups and geographies most in need including learners with health-related barriers to progression, and residents not currently engaged with learning or employment. 

A key early task will also be to map available funding and develop an integrated investment plan that aligns with the plan’s four priorities. 

Digital and Physical Infrastructure

Physical infrastructure is a critical enabler for access and engagement. Too many learners in rural and coastal areas are currently cut off from opportunities due to distance, lack of transport, or underinvestment in local venues. The plan will address this by: 

• Expanding the Hub and Spoke model through Skill Up Devon and Torbay to deliver training in libraries, work hubs, town halls and community centres; 
• Supporting digital infrastructure improvements to allow hybrid delivery and online access, particularly in isolated areas; 
• Using devolved capital funds to invest in sector-specific training infrastructure (e.g. engineering, care, digital, green skills); 
• Working with housing, health and planning teams to embed learning opportunities in wider regeneration initiatives. 

Partnerships with learning providers and institutions will be critical to delivering shared, sustainable provision especially where smaller volumes of learners may affect long-term viability in rural areas. Exploring co-delivery and collaborative models will help maintain access across more remote parts of Devon and Torbay. 

The DTCCA will work with FE and HE partners and local authorities to identify gaps and prioritise investment in facilities. 

A Skilled and Adaptable Delivery Workforce

No skills system can succeed without a high-quality, motivated and responsive teaching and delivery workforce. The ability of FE colleges, adult education providers and community organisations to design and deliver provision depends on having the right staff – in the right places – with the right support. 

Key actions will include: 

• Supporting recruitment and retention of FE and adult learning professionals, particularly in high-demand areas such as construction, engineering, health and digital; 
• Developing a continuing professional development (CPD) offer focused on new delivery models, inclusion, trauma-informed practice and employer engagement; 
• Facilitating secondments, dual roles and industry placements to build stronger links between training and employment; 
• Encouraging cross-provider collaboration to address local delivery gaps and workforce shortages. 

Inclusion training, mentoring, and coaching for those supporting learners with complex needs will also be prioritised as part of workforce development. 

Strong Governance and Local Partnerships

Effective governance and collaboration are fundamental to delivering a skills system that is inclusive, agile and accountable. Devon and Torbay already benefit from a well-established Skills and Employment Advisory Group, which will take the lead in overseeing delivery of this plan. Its multi-agency membership and local credibility make it ideally placed to ensure that action remains aligned to the plan’s priorities, supports place-based delivery, and adapts in response to evidence and feedback. 

To support delivery, governance arrangements will: 

• Position the Skills and Employment Advisory Group as the lead body for oversight, delivery coordination and performance monitoring; 
• Establish thematic and place-based working groups to drive delivery in key areas such as youth transitions, digital inclusion, sector readiness and rural outreach; 
• Ensure governance is embedded within wider systems, including the DTCCA Board, the Growth Plan, and the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working Plan; 
• Embed resident, learner and employer voice at every level, ensuring the system remains responsive and inclusive; 
• Promote open data, transparent decision-making and continuous improvement through regular review and shared accountability. 

The Board’s remit will include a focus on supporting vulnerable groups and aligning with the work of corporate parenting, SEND, and health inclusion partnerships with skills and workforce development where appropriate. 

The DTCCA will continue to strengthen the Board’s capacity and links across the system to ensure delivery of the plan remains collaborative, grounded and driven by local insight. 

Labour Market Intelligence and Data-Driven Planning

Making the right decisions about provision, funding and investment depends on high-quality, granular and timely data. The DTCCA will strengthen the use of labour market intelligence (LMI) by: 

• Building on the work of the LSIP and Business Intelligence Service to provide regular, accessible data to all partners; 
• Developing a consistent learner and employment outcomes framework across providers; 
• Integrating LMI into the commissioning process for Adult Skills Fund delivery; 
• Using customer relationship management (CRM) systems and digital dashboards to monitor demand and progression in real time; 
• Facilitating employer-led reviews of skill demand by sector and geography, particularly as the economy evolves. 

Better data on learner needs, progression barriers, and underrepresented groups will be essential to shaping inclusive provision. 

Improved use of data will help reduce duplication, identify gaps, and support more effective and targeted delivery across the system. 

Integrated Transport for Access

Access to education and training must include the ability to physically reach provision. Devon and Torbay’s dispersed geography means that transport is a core enabler of participation. The DTCCA will work with local transport providers, and infrastructure teams to: 

• Align learning provision with existing and planned transport routes; 
• Pilot subsidised travel schemes for low-income learners and young people, where funding permits; 
• Embed transport access considerations into all commissioning and place-based planning; 
• Use transport data to identify and remove key travel barriers to participation. 

Access to further education in rural and coastal areas is a known barrier, and tackling this through transport integration and local delivery points will remain a strategic priority. 

Innovation, Flexibility and Learning from What Works

Finally, successful delivery will depend on a culture of learning and innovation. Devon and Torbay cannot afford to be locked into static delivery models that fail to reflect people’s real lives or the evolving demands of employers. The DTCCA will: 

• Pilot new models such as accelerated bootcamps, modular progression pathways, and recognition of informal learning; 
• Work with providers to test co-designed and co-delivered courses with employers and learners; 
• Evaluate outcomes and adapt models to reflect feedback and evidence; 
• Foster a culture of shared learning and peer support across the provider network; 
• Embrace inclusive innovation – particularly approaches that increase access for those facing multiple disadvantage. 

Innovation will be encouraged particularly in work with small and micro businesses, in outreach to hard-to-reach learners, and in developing pathways into bedrock sectors such as tourism, care, hospitality and the green economy. 

Innovation will not be pursued for its own sake – but as a vehicle for unlocking access, participation and real outcomes. 

Delivering our Vision – How We Intend to Use the Adult Skills Fund 

The devolution of the ASF from 2026/27 offers an opportunity to take greater control over the design, commissioning and delivery of adult learning to ensure it aligns more closely with our local needs, priorities, and ambitions. This chapter sets out how the DTCCA will approach the deployment of ASF in support of the Skills and Future Workforce Plan, with a particular focus on improving outcomes, enhancing inclusion, and driving place-based innovation. 

Our Priorities for Devolved ASF Investment

The overarching goal of our ASF strategy will be to ensure that every pound spent contributes directly to inclusive economic growth, higher productivity, and stronger progression routes for learners. To this end, we will use ASF to achieve the following key outcomes: 

• Target delivery to the people and places most in need – including rural and coastal communities, low-income adults, residents with a health-related barrier to progression, care-experienced young people, and older workers seeking to re-enter the labour market. 
• Strengthen progression pathways from entry-level to higher-level learning – particularly in foundational and growth sectors such as health and care, tourism, construction, digital and green industries. 
• Improve the effectiveness of functional skills provision – ensuring English, maths, digital and ESOL delivery is high quality, contextually relevant, and embedded within sector-specific routes. 
• Support innovative, flexible, and blended learning models – including modular delivery, community-based learning, Foundation Apprenticeships and bespoke re-engagement programmes. 
• Enable collaborative delivery and shared infrastructure – ensuring local providers, community organisations and employers can work together to deliver sustainable and accessible provision across our varied geography. 

ASF will be used as a core mechanism to underpin the Plan’s four strategic priorities: developing the workforce of tomorrow; supporting a more productive labour market; aligning skills with economic opportunity; and creating a more inclusive and accessible system. 

Commissioning Principles

The DTCCA will develop a commissioning framework for ASF that is flexible, transparent, and driven by local priorities. Our approach will be guided by the following principles: 

• Place-based targeting: funding will be distributed according to local need, as defined by data on inactivity, qualification levels, economic deprivation and employer demand. 
• Outcomes-focused investment: funding decisions will prioritise progression into further learning, employment, or better-quality work, not just participation. 
• Diversity of delivery models: a mixture of grants and contracts will be used to enable both stability for key providers and innovation through new entrants or partnerships. 
• Inclusion and accessibility: all commissioned provision will be expected to demonstrate how it will engage priority groups and reduce structural barriers to learning. 
• Employer and learner voice: commissioning decisions will be informed by ongoing dialogue with employers, learners, and community stakeholders. 

The framework will build on insights from our Skills and Employment Advisory Group, the LSIP, and local evidence gathered through the development of this Plan. It will also be aligned with our broader economic strategies, including the Growth Plan and the Get Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Working Plan. 

Delivery Models and Provider Engagement

We anticipate adopting a blended approach to delivery, combining direct grant awards, competitive tendering, and co-commissioning where appropriate. Key elements include: 

• Grant funding for trusted local providers to maintain stability and sustain core adult learning infrastructure, particularly where there is a clear track record of inclusion and place-based reach. 
• Procured contracts for targeted or specialist provision, including digital bootcamps, intensive sector-based training, and innovative re-engagement models such as pre-apprenticeship pathways and Foundation Apprenticeships. 
• Collaborative delivery partnerships, where multiple organisations work together to deliver across a geography or theme (e.g. a rural learning consortium or a sector-specific progression pathway). 
• Community commissioning through VCSE and other local anchor institutions for engagement-focused activity or outreach in areas of persistent deprivation or isolation. 

All providers will be expected to meet minimum quality thresholds, demonstrate local engagement, and support the strategic goals of the Plan. New and smaller providers will be encouraged to participate, with support for consortia-building, capacity development and partnership brokerage. 

Aligning ASF with Other Funding and Support

ASF commissioning will not occur in isolation. We will actively seek to align ASF with other sources of investment and support, including: 

• Successor funding to the UKSPF and Levelling Up Fund, where this enables capital investment, innovation pilots, or the expansion of local skills infrastructure. 
• NHS and DWP funding to support wraparound provision — including health, housing, and employment services that help learners overcome complex barriers. 
• Local authority regeneration and economic development funding, supporting the co-location of learning and enterprise activity in town centres, community venues and growth hubs. 
• Employer contributions, particularly through co-designed delivery models, apprenticeship support, and in-kind resource sharing. 

This integrated approach will ensure learners benefit from a holistic offer — one that addresses both their skill needs and the wider barriers to progression, participation and economic independence. 

Next Steps: From Strategy to Implementation

To prepare for ASF devolution, the DTCCA will: 

• Finalise the commissioning framework by early 2026, building in extensive consultation with providers, employers and communities, as well as Department for Education.  
• Launch a market engagement process in January 2026 to prepare the provider base and invite innovative proposals. 
• Develop a shared outcomes and performance framework to underpin all contracts and grants. 
• Pilot elements of the framework through early activity in 2025/26, including Skill Up Devon and Torbay and the Hub and Spoke delivery model. 

This approach will ensure that the ASF is not only effectively deployed, but used as a lever to create a fairer, more connected and future-ready skills system. The DTCCA will continue to monitor impact, adapt models where needed, and work collaboratively with all partners to ensure that the ambitions of this Plan are delivered on the ground. An annual Skills Impact Report will present outcomes, value for money and commissioning changes for the forthcoming year. 

Next Steps

The publication of this Skills and Future Workforce Plan is the start of a focused and collaborative effort to reshape the skills system across Devon and Torbay. It sets a clear direction of travel, one grounded in evidence, shaped by local voices, and aligned with the economic ambitions of the new DTCCA. However, delivering on this ambition will require sustained commitment from all partners – including providers, employers, communities, and national government.  

The immediate priority is to begin translating the strategic framework into detailed delivery plans, following the Action Plan 2025-2026 detailed in Appendix A. This will involve working through the Skills and Employment Advisory Group, which already plays a vital coordinating role for skills and employment in the area. The Group will take responsibility for overseeing the implementation of this plan, working through place-based and thematic sub-groups to ensure effective coordination, accountability, and continuous engagement with partners across Devon and Torbay. 

A core early task will be the development of a commissioning framework for the devolved Adult Skills Fund. This will require mapping current provision, identifying delivery gaps and duplication, and designing a funding approach that reflects the four strategic priorities set out in this plan. The framework will support flexibility, allow for innovation, and ensure that provision is focused on outcomes. This will include particular focus on supporting learners with a health-related barrier to progression, care-experienced young people, and those living in our most deprived communities, notably those in rural and coastal areas. 

The Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) for Greater Devon will be a key reference point throughout this process. Developed through direct engagement with employers, it provides a trusted view of workforce needs and will help ensure this skills plan remains aligned with real labour market demand. Alongside this, a broader investment plan will be developed, identifying how other funding streams – such as UKSPF and any future funds, Levelling Up, regeneration funds, and NHS/DWP programmes – can be aligned to support skills priorities. Where relevant, this will include co-investment in shared delivery models and improved transport access to enable provision in more remote communities. 

Several priority interventions will begin to take shape during this period. These include scoping and piloting Skill Up Devon and Torbay as a unifying access and support service for learners and employers; launching the Hub and Spoke model to extend delivery into communities and rural areas; and establishing a new Digital Task Force to tackle digital exclusion and build capacity across all age groups and sectors.  

Governance arrangements will be strengthened to support this next phase. The Skills and Employment Advisory Group will establish a clear timetable for review and reporting, ensuring transparency and shared ownership. Learner and employer voice will be embedded throughout, not only through consultation but through representation in oversight structures. The Group will also take forward work to develop an evaluation framework, drawing on the improved data and labour market intelligence commitments outlined in Section 8.5. This will help ensure that delivery remains inclusive, place-sensitive, and continuously improved in response to real-world impact. 

Above all, the next steps will be underpinned by a commitment to collaboration, flexibility, and delivery. The DTCCA will act as a convener and catalyst – but success will depend on the energy, expertise and partnership of the wider system.  

This plan is not a static document. It is the basis of a long-term effort to ensure that every resident and every business in Devon and Torbay can benefit from a responsive, inclusive and effective skills system.

Appendices

Table 1 – Indicative Timetable for Delivery 

Phase	Timeline	Key Activities
Plan Sign-off and Mobilisation	Autumn 2025	Final sign-off of the Skills and Future Workforce Plan by DTCCA and partners  Communicate strategy to stakeholders and residents
Governance and Delivery Planning	Autumn–Winter 2025/26	Skills and Employment Advisory Group confirms delivery groups and leads  Draft commissioning framework for Adult Skills Fund
Early Delivery and Piloting	Winter 2025/26 – Spring 2026	Pilot Skill Up Devon and Torbay model  Begin Hub and Spoke mapping  Launch Digital Task Force planning and LMI integration work
Funding Alignment and Investment Planning	Spring 2026	Map funding sources and develop investment plan  Consult on Adult Skills Fund commissioning principles
Adult Skills Fund Go Live	August 2026	Begin delivery under devolved commissioning model in line with academic year. Preparatory commissioning and provider engagement to be completed by summer 2026.
Review and Adjustment	Summer 2026	Initial delivery monitoring and LMI review  Adjust investment or activity as needed based on feedback and data
Full Plan Cycle Delivery	2026–2028	Continued rollout of strategic actions across all four priority areas  Ongoing evaluation, reporting and system improvement
Mid-Term Plan Review	Spring–Summer 2027	Comprehensive review of outcomes and learning  Refine priorities and delivery plans based on evidence

Table 2: Headline Outcome Framework (2025–2030) 

Priority	Indicator	Baseline (per year)	2026 target	2028 target	2030 target	Data source	Frequency
Workforce of Tomorrow	NEET rate	13.4%	Reduce by 10%	Reduce by 15%	Reduce by 20%	DfE, LA MI	Quarterly
Workforce of Tomorrow	Level 3 attainment at 19	80.35%	Increase by 5%	Increase by 10%	Increase by 15%	DfE	Annual
Productive Workforce	Adult progression L2→L3 (% within 12 months)	23, 910	Increase by 5%	Increase by 10%	Increase by 15%	Provider ILR, CRM	Quarterly
Productive Workforce	Wage uplift post-training (median, % at 6–12m)	£27, 530	Increase by 5%	Increase by 10%	Increase by 15%	HMRCE LEO/ILR match	Annual
Growth & Diversification	Apprenticeship/HTQ starts in priority sectors	6, 380	Increase by 5%	Increase by 10%	Increase by 15%	ILR	Termly
Opportunity for All	Completion rate priority cohorts (%)	75%	Increase to 80%	Increase to 85%	Increase to 90%	ILR/CRM	Termly
System Access	Average travel time to nearest Hub (mins) in priority areas	30 min	20 min	15 min	15 min	Transport data	Annual

Outputs we aim to measure  

These outputs are not currently tracked across all skills projects or lack consistent baseline data 

Growth & Diversification	Employer co-investment secured (£)	Baseline to be measured in 2026-27 academic year				DTCCA Finance	Quarterly
Opportunity for All	Priority cohorts participation (count)	Baseline to be measured in 2026-27 academic year				CRM	Quarterly
System Quality	Employer satisfaction with responsiveness (%)	Baseline to be measured in 2026-27 academic year				Employer survey	Annual

Appendix A: Action Plan (2025–2027) 

Priority 1. Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow 

Key activities	Timeline	Lead organisation(s)	KPIs / measures of success
Launch Skill Up Devon & Torbay – single gateway for advice, careers, progression, outreach to NEETs, care experienced young people, SEND learners.	Pilot in Torbay & Ilfracombe – Q4 2025; scale to all districts by Autumn 2026.	DTCCA, Local Authorities, Careers Hub, FE/HE, VCSE	Service live by end 2025;   500+ young people engaged by end 2026;   80% satisfaction in youth voice panels.
Expand 16–19 Technical/Vocational Pathways – new capacity in T Levels, apprenticeships, supported internships in sectors: digital, health, construction, hospitality, education.	Scoping Winter 2025; rollout in Sept 2026 academic year.	FE Colleges, Training Providers, Employer Forums	3 new pathways launched;   10% increase in T Level/apprenticeship enrolments; 80% completion rate.
Youth Guarantee Pilots – align Skill Up with employment-side Youth Guarantee, embedding housing, health and mental health support into Youth Hubs.	Pilots in Torbay, Ilfracombe – Q4 2025; scale through 2026.	Local Authorities, Careers Hub, VCSE, DWP	NEET rate among vulnerable groups cut by 20% in pilot areas by end 2026;   300 young people re-engaged.
Education and employer engagement: progressive work experience, careers into curriculum, mentoring & meaningful activity relating to priority sectors	10 projects by Summer 2026; ongoing from Autumn 2026.	Careers Hub, Employers    Chambers of Commerce, DCTPN, schools, colleges	65 employer engagement activities across schools/colleges by 2026; 1000 learners accessing careers related activity
Improve Transitions for Vulnerable Learners – supported internships, job coaching, targeted progression for SEND, care-experienced and those with health-related barriers.	Pilot late 2025; scale Sept 2026.	DCC, SEND Services, DTCCA, FE/HE	100 supported internships by 2026;   75% sustained outcomes.
FE–HE Progression Routes – co-designed sector pathways (digital, health, green, engineering).	Mapping Winter 2025; pathways live Sept 2026.	FE/HE Partnerships, Employers	3 mapped routes;   10% increase in Level 3–4 progression by 2027.
Address Transport & Rural Barriers – subsidised travel, local training hubs, digital inclusion pilots.	2 transport pilots and 2 mobile hubs by mid-2026; expansion late 2026.	DTCCA, Local Authorities, Transport, VCSE	20% increase in rural learner participation;   2 new transport solutions tested.
Integrated Wraparound Support – housing, mental health, childcare and wellbeing integrated into pathways.	Embedded in Youth Guarantee/Skill Up pilots – late 2025; scaled 2026.	NHS/ICB, Local Authorities, VCSE	200 young people access integrated support by 2026;   80% report improved wellbeing/confidence.

Priority 2. Creating a More Productive Workforce 

Key activities	Timeline	Lead organisation(s)	KPIs / Measures of Success
Adult Skills Fund (ASF) Pilot & Commissioning – prioritise upskilling in digital, care, construction, green industries, additionally with foundational skills in Torbay.	Pilot late 2025; devolved commissioning live from Aug 2026.	DTCCA, FE/HE, Training Providers, VCSE	ASF commissioned by Autumn 2026;  1,000 learners supported by end 2026;   70% progression into work/further study.
Hub & Spoke Learning Model Rollout – expand modular adult training access through libraries, community centres, town halls, and work hubs.	Mapping Winter 2025; first hubs live Spring 2026.	DTCCA, Libraries, FE/HE, VCSE	5 hubs + 15 spokes operational by 2026;   500 learners engaged;  70% retention.
Workforce Reskilling in Priority Sectors – expand Bootcamps, apprenticeships, modular upskilling for adults in construction, digital, health, logistics, green.	Q4 2025 pilots; expansion 2026.	DTCCA, DWP, Employers, FE Colleges	1500 completions by end 2026;
In-Work Progression & Job Quality Charter – work with employers to co-design modular training, flexible routes, and promote fair pay and job design.	Design Q4 2025; pilots 2026.	Employer Forums, DTCCA, Chambers	20 employers sign Job Quality Charter;   100 low-paid workers progress by 2026.
Boost Functional & Digital Skills for Productivity – embed English, maths, digital in vocational pathways; expand ESOL linked to sector jobs.	Start Q1 2026; expand through ASF rollout.	FE, Adult Learning, DTCCA, VCSE	500 residents gain digital/functional skills by end 2026;   200 ESOL learners supported.
Employer–Provider Co-Design – use LSIP and Marchmont Observatory to link training to demand, focusing on SMEs and microbusinesses.	Ongoing 2025–2026.	LSIP, DTCCA, Employers	3 sector pathways revised;   15 SMEs co-design training;   80% employer satisfaction.

Priority 3. Supporting the Growth and Diversification of the Economy 

Key activities	Timeline	Lead organisation(s)	KPIs / Measures of Success
Inclusive Skill Up Devon & Torbay Gateway – proactive outreach to NEETs, care leavers, SEND learners, carers, older workers, and ESOL learners.	Pilot Q4 2025 in Torbay & Ilfracombe; expand 2026.	DTCCA, Careers Hub, VCSE, FE/HE	1,000 priority learners engaged by 2026;   70% progression into learning/work.
Wraparound Support in Youth Hubs & Skill Up – integrate housing, mental health, childcare, and financial advice.	Pilots Q4 2025; region-wide Q3 2026.	NHS Devon ICB, Local Authorities, VCSE	300 residents supported;   80% report improved wellbeing.
Carer-Friendly Employment Pathways – pledges with employers; advice co-located in carer hubs.	Design Q1 2026; pilots mid-2026.	DTCCA, Employers, VCSE	100 carers supported;   90% report increased confidence.
Inclusive Employer Pledge & Job Carving – expand supported internships, flexible hiring, guaranteed interviews.	Launch Q2 2026.	Employer Forums, DTCCA, DWP	25 employers signed;   100 SEND/disabled residents supported into work.
Community-Based Skills Delivery – skills support in libraries, GP surgeries, housing offices, food banks.	Pilots early 2026; 15 venues by end 2026.	Libraries Unlimited, FE, VCSE	500 learners engaged;   70% completion.
Transport & Digital Inclusion Solutions – travel bursaries, employer minibuses, device repair/donation schemes.	Pilots mid-2026; scale by end 2026.	DTCCA, Transport, VCSE	15% increase in rural participation;   1,000 residents gain  essential digital skills.
Commission and Deploy Connect to Work Programme	Launch Q3 2025 in Devon and Torbay	Local Authorities,	Link 300 Connect to Work participants to sector-specific training or progression pathways by end of 2026

Appendix B: Devon and Torbay Combined Authority Skills and Future Workforce Plan 2025 – 2030 Sectors 

Throughout the Skills and Workforce plan, several groups of sectors are referred to; bedrock sectors, high-economic value sectors, and sectors with the Industrial Strategy. The table below provides a breakdown of the sectors that are contained within each group. 

Bedrock Sectors	Agriculture  Construction  Health and Social Care  Hospitality  Tourism and Visitor Economy
High-Economic Value Sectors	Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering  Clean Energy  Defence  Digital and Technology  Finance Services  Professional and Business Services
Industrial Strategy Sectors	Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering  Agri-Tech and Food Systems  Clean Energy  Creative Industries  Defence  Digital and Technology  Financial Services  Health and Life Sciences  Health and Social Care  Marine and Maritime Industries  Professional and Business Services  Tourism and Visitor Economy