West Yorkshire is a Region of Learning and Creativity. It is woven into our history, defines our identity and shapes the way we look to the future. From the industrial revolution to pioneering cultural movements, our region has always been a place where ideas thrive and innovation takes root. Learning and creativity are not just assets; they are the very fabric of our communities, our economy and our sense of place.
Our ambition is clear: to build on our strengths and ensure that skills, talent and opportunities are accessible to everyone, everywhere in West Yorkshire. We are already delivering, through partnerships, programmes and investment. This is just the beginning.
The next decade presents an exciting opportunity for West Yorkshire, with new powers and flexibility over funding, the region can make decisions that address local challenges and priorities in a joined-up way, like never before.
Together, we can make West Yorkshire a region where learning and creativity are not just part of our heritage, but the foundation of our shared future.
A happy prosperous place with a growing economy.
In West Yorkshire everyone, regardless of background or circumstance, can access the skills, opportunities and support they need to thrive. A place where people are empowered to discover their passions, grow their talents and find fulfilling work. Where employers value and invest in their people, recognising that shared success drives growth. Where everyone has the chance to build and demonstrate creativity and problem-solving skills, to find new approaches to the challenges we all face. Anchored by our strong community connections, West Yorkshire will continue to be a proud, vibrant place where everyone contributes to a flourishing economy and enjoys a happy, healthy life.
Since West Yorkshire’s devolution journey began in 2020, the Combined Authority has received new powers, funding and responsibilities meaning decisions that affect local communities are made closer to home. Within skills and employment, devolution has provided significant levers for change. Our greater control over skills funding has allowed us to improve strategic alignment between business and education, and integrate work, health and skills functions.
The 2020 Future Ready Skills Commission, chaired by Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, designed a blueprint for a devolved skills system. The Commission recommended 10 things that need to change in a devolved system. West Yorkshire has progressed work against the majority of these 10 areas, including ensuring that training meets the current and future skills needs of regional labour market, via delivery agreements supported by investment funding. This will be further strengthened through the commitments articulated in the Adult Skills Plan 2026.
The recommendations of the Commission still stand and provide important guidelines for the future.
Alongside this, the Local Growth Plan is the region’s evidence-led, ten-year plan to unlock growth and prosperity for West Yorkshire. The plan addresses key barriers around investment, connectivity and skills. This is centred around the significant opportunities in key growth sectors and planned regional major investment.
It includes our objective to halve the number of West Yorkshire residents with low or no qualifications and offer everyone who wants it access to a Level 3 qualification. The Mayor’s pledge to build a Region of Learning and Creativity is central to realising these transformational opportunities. The vision of this pledge is a region where people of all ages and backgrounds can access the qualifications, skills and employment support they need to secure well-paid work and fulfil their potential.
Advocating for West Yorkshire and delivering a skills and employment system that meets residents’ needs is something that the Combined Authority and partners have been investing in throughout our devolution journey. The examples of our successes articulate how, when systems work together as one, West Yorkshire is a Region of Learning and Creativity.
Despite meaningful strides, the road to becoming a fully integrated region of learning and creativity for all spans the next decade: there is still significant progress to be made.
Today, too many people still feel disconnected from opportunities to learn, innovate and thrive. Labour market intelligence tells a clear story: West Yorkshire has a relatively weak skills base. Despite the need for skilled workers, the estimated employer investment in training has fallen over the last decade.
There is a persistent deficit of people with high-level qualifications and a relatively large proportion of people with no or low-level qualifications. West Yorkshire’s skills deficit extends to the employed as well as the unemployed.
Our region has a pronounced lag in productivity and growth, compounded by entrenched deprivation and poverty. Lower productivity means that West Yorkshire residents have fewer opportunities, lower skills, poorer connectivity and worse wellbeing.
Educational progression and access to opportunity has not translated across all groups and areas. Insufficiently tailored and joined-up support has prevented those facing disadvantages in the labour market from finding good work, whether joining a business as an employee, or being supported to create their own opportunities via entrepreneurship.
Residents who are disabled, from an ethnic minority or living in poverty experience a double disadvantage of being more likely to face job insecurity and facing additional barriers to access work.
This has meant that while there has been economic growth, not all residents have been able to benefit. Growing the economy is not just about increasing wealth in the region – it is about tangibly improving the lives of people. When asked, people tell their own story.
The Youth Voice Census 2025 highlighted that young people see West Yorkshire as a place full of community spirit, creativity, and potential, but they are clear that not everyone gets to experience these things equally. They highlight the gaps in their feelings of well-being, confidence, and access to opportunities.
Difficult to hear about things unless you are 'in the know'.
They [employers] look for experience which a lot of us don't have due to finishing education. How do you get experience if no one will hire the inexperienced.
Most people are really friendly, [but] I know this isn't the same for my peers who are of different ethnicities or fit stereotypes of other sexualities.
Responses from young people in West Yorkshire to the Youth Voice Census 2025
West Yorkshire’s challenge is one of the consistency and visibility of opportunity. The Census highlights a region ready to move forward; provided systems are aligned to meet young people where they are, early enough, and fairly.
In the Work and Health Plan 2025, Sadiq aged 42, described how his worsening physical health was negatively impacting his mental health and confidence, as well as leaving him isolated. He volunteers and cares for his partner. They have struggled with money since he left his last job especially since the cost-of-living crisis which saw their energy bills double.
Sadiq used to enjoy playing sport but is now unable to due to his health. He is hoping to return to paid employment part-time yet explained how he was seen as over-qualified by potential employers for the roles he was applying for which was affecting his ability to secure a new job.
Sadiq’s experience highlights that whilst people may leave paid employment, or never enter it, due to one health reason, the barriers can evolve and change over time. It highlights the importance of support connecting with people quickly before challenges multiply and responding to changing needs over time.
The challenge is not whether this progress continues. Instead, we face the question of how rapidly and deeply we can embed these changes to create an ecosystem where learning drives creativity and creativity fuels inclusive economic growth.
From April 2026, West Yorkshire Combined Authority will for the first time receive an Integrated Settlement from the Government, bringing funding together across six thematic policy areas. This will provide us with greater choice and control over how devolved funding is spent for our region.
This is an exciting opportunity for flexibility in the skills system and to meet regional priorities in a joined-up way. For our region to thrive, the next decade of strategic delivery demands shared commitment, collective action and bold investment.
The Region of Learning and Creativity strategy provides a forward vision for how skills, talent and opportunity can be realised in West Yorkshire to enable a happy and prosperous region with a growing economy. It will provide a long-term view that brings partners together in one voice for the region, linking the ambitions of the Local Growth Plan to local action plans.
This strategy will deliver a vision and a call to action in three ways:
Delivering the priorities in this strategy will meet the outcomes agreed with government for integrated settlement funding:
More broadly, successful delivery of the Region of Learning and Creativity will contribute to the outcomes associated to other areas of regional funding, improving the quality of people’s lives around housing, transport, environment, and health and wellbeing.
Further detail on the outcomes expected from investment and how we will monitor progress is set out in the section on impact and outcomes.
The Combined Authority brings together five local authorities to make our region a better place to live.
The elected Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, represents 2.4 million residents across the region and works with Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield council leaders, business representatives and partners and is the directly elected Chair of the Combined Authority.
Providing a single voice for West Yorkshire, the Mayor has powers and responsibilities in relation to transport, economic development, provision of skills training and housing.
The Combined Authority serves as a policy maker, funder and system enabler, creating the conditions for collaboration and innovation to flourish. We work in partnership with local authorities, businesses, communities and organisations across sectors to translate shared ambitions into tangible outcomes. Our role extends beyond setting strategic direction. We focus on strengthening systems and relationships that underpin effective delivery.
Partnerships are central to achieving our regional priorities. The Combined Authority collaborates with partners to co-design strategies and programmes that reflect local needs and aspirations.
We provide and interpret data and insights to inform evidence-based decision-making and support partners in targeting interventions for maximum impact. We align investment through coordinated funding streams and the leveraging of resources to ensure efficiency and avoid duplication.
We undertake delivery jointly, combining expertise and capacity to achieve outcomes that cannot be delivered by any single organisation alone. We also foster innovation by creating opportunities for experimentation and learning, enabling partners to test new approaches and scale successful solutions.
Through these collaborative efforts, the Combined Authority aims to drive inclusive economic growth and unlock opportunities for all. A significant example of this is the Weaver Network – West Yorkshire’s new transport network delivering a better-connected region. This collective approach will build a stronger, fairer and more prosperous West Yorkshire, a region where every individual and community can contribute to and benefit from sustainable success.
A happy, prosperous place with a growing economy.
73% of organisations surveyed in the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs Survey reported that creative thinking skills are a top priority for them when considering talent as we move into the future, agreeing that this skill set is increasing in relevance and importance.
Source: World Economic Forum Future Jobs Survey, 2023
Led by the Mayor, West Yorkshire is a place that recognises the vital role learning and creativity play in people’s lives and the economy.
Learning is essential for personal growth, developing confidence, curiosity and adaptability to a rapidly changing world.
Creativity is about being open-minded, expressive, curious and innovative. It’s about connecting the dots between experiences, ideas and imagination and extends beyond creative industries into all sectors.
The future of employment and a growing economy depends on learning and creativity. To address the region’s weak skills base and lag in productivity, we need high quality life-long learning opportunities which don’t stop with a qualification.
Instead, they lead to good work where employers continue to invest in the personal and professional development of their staff. Creativity – recognised as a top skill by employers – supports innovation in the workplace, whether that’s for a small-medium business, a start-up or a Voluntary, Community or Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisation.
The Combined Authority consulted with West Yorkshire’s employers and partners. They told us that they strongly supported creativity as a skill but saw that it was not yet prominent enough. Many wanted creativity to be recognised as a catalyst for innovation, problem-solving, enterprise and engagement.
Employers of all types and sectors are facing more change than ever before: from security assurances and the world order, to the changing landscape of information and technology, to the impact of a changing climate. The next 10 years are going to be unpredictable.
This strategy deliberately and unashamedly puts learning and creativity front and centre. It is a recognition of West Yorkshire’s heritage and identity. It is also a call to everyone: value and invest in learning and creativity and we will have the tools to meet these challenges and grow opportunities for all.
The following chapters outline the shared commitments and ambitions which underpin a Region of Learning and Creativity.
