All skills are local, in that ultimately the effectiveness of training depends on its availability and quality in the geographical area where employer and learner demand for that training exists. Using our existing regional networks, and by creating new ones, ECA is working actively to enhance local provision and strengthen ties between Members and local training and careers organisations.
Part of this effort is to work with ECA Members in an area to clarify what their priorities are for improving the quantity and/or quality of electrotechnical skills outcomes, then to establish partnerships with training providers and other relevant stakeholders and agree a plan to help deliver these outcomes. We call each of these local arrangements an Electrotechnical Training and Careers Alliance (ETCA).
Linked to the creation of ETCAs, ECA is also working actively to build contacts and influence with local decision makers, including local authorities, mayoral and non-mayoral combined authorities, regional skills partnerships, careers hubs, and chambers of commerce. As devolution of skills policy and funding decisions accelerates, these contacts are likely to prove increasingly important in ensuring ECA Members in an area get the right skills provision in place.
Read the Welsh Government's Net Zero Action Plan which showcases ECA's work on raising awareness of the sector’s role in net zero and the huge opportunities that exist because of it.
Electrotechnical Training and Careers Alliances (ETCAs) are an innovative and unique initiative launched by ECA in 2024. Their purpose is to help Members collaborate both among themselves and with other local stakeholders to enhance skills delivery and industry influence over education and careers services within a chosen geographical area.
Each ETCA relies on a group of ECA Members in an area agreeing to come together and work with education providers and other stakeholders on a plan of action to improve one or more aspect of skills and careers provision in that place. ECA has drafted a list of possible initiatives which participants in an ETCA might want to undertake, but the choice between these (and any other options that aren’t suggested) rests entirely with the participants themselves.
What form your own ETCA takes therefore depends on what you want to achieve and the willingness of other Members in your local area to unite around the same vision. ECA is there to support Members and other ETCA participants all the way through, with industry-leading research on the current state of electrical skills in each locality and ever stronger links to local skills influencers.
To register your interest in taking part or to find out more about what might be happening in your area, please contact either your ECA regional team or the Education & Skills team.
Local factors really matter in shaping the willingness and capability of the skills system to meet business needs in a particular area. After the first wave of devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 1990s, the period from 2010 onwards has seen an acceleration in the growth of devolved decision making and funding powers over skills in England.
In response, ECA has been working to strengthen its links with local and regional government in England, as well as with other influential local bodies, such as chambers of commerce. Our 2023 joint report with JTL on electrical workforce and learner populations in 38 local areas in England, confirmed the existence of major differences between areas – underlining the point that the skills challenges and potential solutions applicable in one place won’t necessarily be relevant for another. ECA Members wanting to play an active role in making things better in their own region or locality now have a chance to do so by joining an ECA Electrotechnical Training and Careers Alliance (ETCA).
In Wales, ECA is already well established as a participant in three of the four Regional Skills Partnerships created by Welsh Government, covering South-East, North and South-West Wales. In England, we are similarly building positive relationships with the likes of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, West Midlands Combined Authority, Surrey County Council, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, Business West and many, many more. Access to the funding and convening powers of these important bodies promises to increase the ability of ECA Members to influence skills developments in their local area and the impact of skills collaborations such as ECA ETCAs.