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For local and combined authorities

Job adverts are readily available. Knowledge of local residents' capabilities is not.

Local skills improvement plans record what employers require. Job postings record what is being advertised. What is held about local residents is a record of what they are qualified in, which is not the same as what they can do. Setlwork reads that crucial additional layer, local resident by local resident, and can report it in aggregate to the authority.

View a plan areaFind your route in
A screen-printed illustration of a council officer in a civic hall looking at a large wall map of one English region. Residents are drawn onto the left half of the map and joined to districts by fine lines; the right half is drawn but empty.

The journey

A local resident receives a route. The authority receives the pattern.

The local resident

Submits what they have actually done in practice, receives one route in

  • A CV, and a few lines in their own words.
  • One occupation they are closest to, rather than a list of irrelevant vacancies.
  • The one or two skills and capabilities most important to build in order to have a better chance.
  • Where aligned local training and education opportunities are available.
See a worked example
The authority

Setlwork reads demand, capability and provision in one connected view

  • What the local skills plans name as in demand, set against what is actually advertised.
  • Which occupations local residents are closest to, and numbers of roles available.
  • Who the closest education and training partners are who could provide the training they need.
  • Providing advice on the next steps to support them on their journey.
View a plan area
The capability layer

Five foundational capabilities that make the difference

The metacognitive capability to notice and learn from one's own performance.

The relational capability to understand emotions in oneself and with others.

The adaptive capability to persist through challenging times and keep moving.

The agentic capability and self-belief to act with confidence under uncertainty.

Beyond simple communication skills, understanding the importance of body language, tone, facial expressions, timing, and knowing how to say things in the best way in different situations and environments.

Knowing a population, their qualifications, and their skills gap gives you a two-dimensional view. Knowing who they are as people gives you a 3D view for the first time. Overlooked for decades, this is the area of learning that matters most not only in the world of work, but in life more widely.

Read the methodology

National

England's skills plans, made queryable

Every one of England's 39 local skills improvement plan areas on one map, with the data behind each one and the route finder a local resident would use in practice. All based on published public data.

39
plan areas
25,072
advertised roles in the snapshot
84%
placed on the map

39 of 39 LSIP areas live

England, by region

Tap a coloured region to see its local skills plan. Muted regions are coming soon.

East MidlandsEast of EnglandLondonNorth EastNorth WestSouth EastSouth WestWest MidlandsYorkshire and the Humber
Data live Coming soon★ National priority sector

Region boundaries: ONS (Open Government Licence v3.0). Postcode lookup: postcodes.io.

Pick a region, or search your postcode

Try NG1 (Nottingham), M1 (Manchester) or GU1 (Guildford).

Where demand, local residents and provision line up. And where they do not.

Employer demand and provision come from this area's own published plan.

About the Greater Manchester plan area

The 39 areas here are Local Skills Improvement Plan areas, not combined authority boundaries, and several are not authorities at all. Greater Manchester covers 10 councils: Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan. Prepared by Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, covering 2023 (Stage 1); Stage 2 runs August 2023 to March 2025. Source: gov.uk, Annex B.

Greater Manchester's plan names Social care workers as in demand. 58 advertised roles in that occupation family appear in the snapshot for this area. Which local residents could fill these roles, and which providers could deliver the required training?

  • 5

    Aligned

  • 2

    Roles, no people

  • 1

    People, no roles

Occupation the plan namesAdvertised hereLocal residents closeWhere that leaves you
Care workers and home carers581AlignedDemand and people both present. Back the route.
Quantity surveyors01People, no rolesResidents are close and nothing is advertised here. Check whether demand is hidden or the priority is aspirational.
Elementary storage occupations11AlignedDemand and people both present. Back the route.
Customer service occupations n.e.c.60Roles, no peopleEmployers are hiring and nobody local is close. Commission training.
Other registered nursing professionals20Roles, no peopleEmployers are hiring and nobody local is close. Commission training.
Large goods vehicle drivers41AlignedDemand and people both present. Back the route.
Fork-lift truck drivers21AlignedDemand and people both present. Back the route.
Teaching assistants1441AlignedDemand and people both present. Back the route.

Advertised counts are for Greater Manchester only, from a snapshot of job postings.

1,634

advertised roles here, all occupations

9

delivery partners named in the plan

16

occupations the plan names as in demand

The layer of intelligence no authority currently holds

One local resident engages with the tool; their results are run through the engine. AI reads the evidence. Algorithms do the scoring, so every number is verifiable.

Illustrative

The route returned for Danielle H.

Retail supervisor in Salford, RQF level 3, seeking teaching assistant.

Running the engine

Multiplied across a cohort of local residents

A sample cohort, twelve Greater Manchester residents

Illustrative
12
residents assessed
11
routed to a role in the area
1
routed to an occupation with nothing advertised
1
too little evidence to place

Job availability

11
stay in the local area
0
roles within the region
1
Roles in the wider regions

Occupations these twelve are closest to

Skills these twelve would need to build

  • Adapting 3
  • Listening 3
  • Speaking 2
  • Creating 2
  • Working with others 1
Back to the national view

Get in touch

See it for your area

With your own local residents engaged and using the platform, the illustrative column becomes immediate intelligence previously not even in scope in tackling the skills and workforce development challenge.

Contact usLook at an area first
Setlwork for Citizens: national, regional and local skills intelligence | Setlwork