Agenda Item
LVEP – 1st December 2025
Agenda Item:
Suffolk & Norfolk LVEP – Visitor Economy Skills Group
This report focuses on the VENI Visitor Economy Skills Group, potential development of training modules for the future, and employer engagement with the skills agenda.
- Skills Group Meeting
This meeting took place on Tuesday 21st October 2025 at 2.00pm (online) on TEAMS. To view the full minutes of the meeting please click here, where you can also view previous agendas and minutes.
This meeting covered a range of topics , from apprenticeships and work experience to VENI training contracts, partnership projects with DWP and employers; and the concept of local ambassadors. There was a lot of discussion around the ‘golden triangle’ of employers, educators and students – in particular, how do we make work experience work better? How do we help apprenticeships make more sense for both employers and students? How do we overcome the age-old challenge of timing misalignment?
A highlight of the meeting was Jane Edwards’ Elveden-DWP-VENI Partnership Project – Sector-based Work Academy Programme, with a lot of interest from across the skills group and something we all agreed was worth developing, expanding further.
We agreed some action points:
• Rachel Bunn to report back on East Coast pilot project for work experience.
• Tracey Harding and Andrew to report back on Newmarket Ambassadors Programme.
• Andrew to report back on Skills Bootcamp plans
• Jane Edwards and Andrew to report back on further VENI/DWP Employer partnership projects.
Date of Next Meeting: 20th January 2026 Online (TEAMS) at 2.00pm
2. Further development of VENI training modules and establishment of a regional identity
We welcome views from the LVEP Board on the direction of future VENI skills work. In particular it would be helpful to discuss ways in which the WorldHost programme can be further developed and enriched to ensure regional relevance.
3. Employer Engagement – A sector Skills Voice
In anticipation of the new mayoral combined authority, we have been asked to support the creation of an employer-led skills group for the visitor economy. VENI already runs a successful skills group that meets quarterly and discusses a range of issues related to skills for the visitor economy. However this group is largely attended by the public sector and has little direct input from employers in the sector. With this lack of private sector involvement in mind, we are in discussion with the County Councils to create a group exclusively for visitor economy employers – perhaps meeting twice a year. The purpose of the group would be to inform the content and direction of skills for the sector so that funding can be aligned with business skills needs.
We are therefore seeking employers who would be willing to be part of the group.