Cumbria Community Foundation - Furness: Opportunities and Challenges 2021

F U R N E S S – O P P O R T U N I T I E S & C H A L L E N G E S 22 O P P O R T U N I T I E S n Capitalising on initiatives to improve outcomes for young people such as the South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust and the University of Cumbria’s new Barrow campus. n Building on the area’s strong track record for vocational training. n Carrying through the benchmark performance of pupils at early- years stages to eliminate under- performance at GCSE level. Challenges: n Addressing poor attainment, particularly in the more deprived areas of Barrow. n Improving the performance of schools – no secondary school in Furness is rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. n Retraining older workers to fill skills gaps and so adapt to permanent changes in the economy and work patterns following the Covid-19 pandemic. Education Overall, 23.7% 1 of the working-age population have no qualifications. That is slightly above the average for England, 22.5%, but better than the Cumbrian average of 24.2%. There are, however, wide variations within Furness. In Barrow’s Central ward, for example, more than a third (35.1%) have no qualifications. Furness has significantly fewer people with degree- level qualifications – 22.8% of the working-age population, compared with 24.6% for Cumbria and 27.4% for England. A plausible explanation is that the availability of well- paid, skilled jobs in manufacturing make vocational qualifications an attractive alternative to a degree for young people in Furness. The plans to have a University campus in the town will help raise awareness of the relevance and availability of degree level education. The area has healthy figures for apprenticeship starts although the number has declined since 2015-16 in line with the national trend. In 2019-20 there were 870 apprenticeship starts 2 in the Barrow and Furness parliamentary constituency, of which 640 were at ‘advanced’ or ‘higher’ level. Not all were school leavers by any means – 250 were aged 25 or older. In December 2020 BAE Systems announced plans to accept another 400 onto its apprenticeship trainee programme. There are 45 primary schools in Furness, the vast majority assessed as ‘good’ by Ofsted with three rated ‘outstanding’. There are no ‘outstanding’ secondary schools. Most are ‘good’ while two ‘require improvement’. Attainment at the early-years stages is close to the national averages. 1 Census 2011 2 Department for Education Educational attainment lags behind the national average.