Welcome to the March 2008 edition of the Labour Market e-bulletin and website, Labour Market Focus.This will be the last until a decision is made on funding (please see below).

The e-bulletin and website is designed for professionals from a wide range of agencies who advise young people and adults across the SE region. This issue features:

• Our Industry Focus on Adult Social Care.
• Spotlight On…. Age, Care and the Flexible Labour Market.
• The latest national and regional news.
• New regional and local data providing details on Vacancies

Just click on the top navigation to find out more.

You can still contact us on 01845 526699 or by emailing se.lmf@vtplc.com.

Links to all the Bulletins-

Berkshire Bulletin
Hampshire & IOW Bulletin
Kent and Medway Bulletin
Milton Keynes, Oxon & Bucks Bulletin
Surrey Bulletin
Sussex Bulletin

Labour Market Focus Evaluation
 
Labour Market Focus is a 2 year pilot project due to end on 31 March 2008 funded by SEEDA, LSC and JCP. Some of you took part in the e-survey of users last November which will be used to help funders decide on whether the product should continue after the end of the pilot period. In the last edition of LMF we said that we would feed back to you on the results.
 
The e-survey link was sent to around 4,000 people - 211 of you responded. Over half of the responses came from recipients working in JCP, 17% from Connexions Partnerships with the remainder working for the LSC, schools and colleges.  Around 60% of respondents gave good or very good markings on the quality of the news, other information and links provided. 2% of respondents gave poor markings. There was general approval of the content and design of both the website and bulletin and there were a number of general comments supporting LMF and its continuation. The majority of people felt that it helped them in delivery of their roles but acknowledged that there were other sources of information that they used too. The most popular pages according to these respondents are local news and local data.
 
Next Steps
 
This will be the last edition of LMF in its current format as funding for the pilot project has now ended. Funding partners are now considering the results of the pilot in the context of their funding decisions for 2008/09 and will shortly be in a position to decide whether the service should continue beyond the pilot period. We will publish details of the decision, which will be made by the 11th April, on the LMF website shortly thereafter.

The bulletin is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Partners in the project also include Connexions, Jobcentre Plus Nextstep, Sector Skills Councils, Government Office for the South East (GOSE).