Chamber CEO Paul Cherpeau joined prominent Chamber members and directors at a Speakers for Schools and Northern Powerhouse Partnership roundtable meeting with Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram.
The focus of the roundtable was to share employer insights and experiences into the challenges of bringing together high quality work experience opportunities for young people that provide equality of opportunity and access, while also delivering outcomes that support their aspirations and help them to find pathways into work.
The Chamber’s position, drawn from evidence within the Local Skills Improvement Plan, is that employers want to see employability skills at the forefront of education provision here in the Liverpool City Region, and this was supported by contributions from Alison Lobb (Morecrofts Solicitors), Graham Bond (RSM), Sean Keyes (Sutcliffe) and Emily Robson (Knowledge Quarter Liverpool).
Business leaders regularly speak of their need for people with strong communications skills, adaptability and resilience, solid leadership and management capabilities and a more streamlined approach (and access to) careers advice. Aligning the talent pipeline ambitions of Liverpool City Region projects, initiatives and growth cluster inward investment plans with a joined-up approach across schools, further education and higher education providers can create a platform upon which future growth and social mobility can be achieved.
Representatives from The Co-Operative, SP Energy Networks, EY and KPMG provided details of their respective initiatives and how they use the scale and scope of their operations to create opportunities.
While there are numerous challenges to enabling a predominantly SME business community such as that in the Liverpool City Region, the discussion reinforced that there is a clear appetite and determination to better integrate and support business engagement with school-aged children, including new, more innovative approaches to work experience.
Enabling ring-fenced funding for schools to fulfil careers and business engagement requirements, creating skills & employability passports to supplement academic grades, and enhancing social value metrics for work experience within procurement practices, were just some of the discussion points within a lively and engaging debate.
Paul Cherpeau said:
“The discussion with Speakers for Schools again demonstrated the importance of the employer voice within the skills agenda.
“Whilst it is in the best interests of businesses to collectively support the provision of opportunities and experience for schoolchildren, they must be individually incentivised and supported to do so in ways which add value to their own organisations, create meaningful opportunities for young people and support efforts to align with colleges, training providers and universities.
“It’s imperative that we join it all up and create a talent pipeline for the Liverpool City Region that addresses the current and future needs of employers to enable an economy of growth and prosperity.”
Nick Brook, CEO, Speakers for Schools added:
‘Speakers for Schools supports businesses of all sizes in developing the talent pipeline needed for the jobs of the future. Our ambition is to ensure that by 2028, all young people have access to high-quality, multi-day work experience. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. By working with businesses to provide transformative opportunities, we can change that.’
Speakers for Schools can be accessed at https://www.speakersforschools.org/.
Visit www.liverpoolchamber.org.uk/local-skills-improvement-plan/ to engage with the Local Skills Improvement Plan for the Liverpool City Region