38 focus on oxfordshire – roundtable ... continued from previous page
to want to cut their teeth in London. But if you can imprint on them at university, like a chick coming out of an egg, they’ll know that when they’ve done the bright lights, realise that they need to be at their London desks 24 hours a day and don’t have a life, then Oxfordshire will become attractive. That’s not because it will be second best, but because they can take what they have learnt and bring it back here to make a real difference.”
Murray remarked: “ Work, after all, is a lifestyle choice.”
. . . or the attraction of sustainable living?
Barlow remarked that graduates were not necessarily homegrown talent. “There is a huge talent pool coming out of the Oxford universities, but the students don’t normally come from Oxford. It is not home to them, so we can’t expect them all to stay after three years of study.”
They seem to achieve it in university cities like Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds, mentioned Tipple. He emphasised the need to “anchor talent to Oxford” in some way, to message “the dynamic of Oxford growth” while providing attractive housing, salaries, transportation and lifestyle. He highlighted the Bicester eco-village development which will provide 5,000 homes and is designed to enable residents to live a zero carbon, green lifestyle and get around easily without the need for car journeys.
Campbell: “We have a high proportion of people who actually live and work in the county. We just need to find ways of making Oxfordshire more attractive and ‘sticky’ for graduates and the like.”
Is good placement the answer?
Newdick said his company had a student placement for a year in 2006, but there was no follow up from the university. “I was surprised, because it seemed to work for everyone.” He admitted that his company’s own connection with the Oxford universities was weak. “There should be stronger links within the business sector, but I don’t get a sense of integration or that there’s a natural place to go to find graduates.”
Tipple mentioned how West Country talent was retained through a well-established student placement scheme – ‘Unlocking Cornish Potential’ – between local businesses and the combined Cornish universities. “Through such placements it’s created a connection between businesses and student opportunities, which has built up over the years.” He felt the Oxford universities were now realising that they had to “open doors and look out rather than simply deliver the university agenda.”
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translate what they already have in military abilities into something marketable in commercial terms.”
Barlow mentioned that Milton Park had an ex-Army Logistics Corp employee. “These guys are highly skilled and get things done.”
Tipple: “These skills are embedded and quite often it is simply a matter of providing some ‘transfer support’ into civilian life.”
“Who provides that support?” asked Murray. Anthony Foxlee-Brown
Godding revealed that her previous Oxford employer had regularly taken on student placements. But, while they had applied to the Oxford universities, the placements actually came from Bristol, largely due to their courses accommodating a mid-study placement. “I hired placements for three years in a row, and I estimate 50% of those students are still with the company.”
Clarke mentioned James Cowper’s recent student placements had come from Bath or Bournemouth.
Anthony Foxlee-Brown said Grundon had an Oxford Brookes placement student currently working within its operations, and was aiming to recruit another at the end of her year, but as a company it would welcome stronger links with the Oxford universities.
Commenting on a 2013 report on the value of business clustering within Oxfordshire, Campbell recalled a conclusion: “It is really important for a cluster to have a successful university, but it is really important for a university to have a successful cluster.”
The Roundtable agreed that more needed to be done to develop student placement, graduate retention and worthwhile work experience programmes, through greater collaboration between the education and business sectors.
Join the ex-Army recruitment drive?
Although Grundon required graduate level employees for scientific roles, notably chemists for its technical division, the company currently had a problem recruiting blue-collar staff, Foxlee-Brown revealed. Grundon’s success had led to the need for more logistics staff, particularly LGV drivers. “There’s a lot of competition for logistics jobs in Oxfordshire, due to the county’s success in attracting logistics business to the area and we are finding recruitment difficult, despite offering free driver training to upskill people.”
Tipple suggested changes within MOD personnel numbers at Carterton, Brize Norton and Shrivenham, might provide an Oxfordshire opportunity for Grundon. “There are substantial numbers of logistics service personnel coming out of mainstream armed forces work who need modular training to
Beverley Sunderland
Campbell noted that with their families now based locally, service personnel would probably want to stay in the county rather than move children out of schools, etc.
Is there adequate growth funding for Oxfordshire businesses?
Willmott, whose business from start-up relied on external funding, said: “I don’t know what it is about this region but there appear to be many individuals and angel investors around Oxfordshire who are prepared to consider different types of business plans. We haven’t needed to go to any banks or financial institutions for funding, and I’m sure if we had, it would have been very much more time consuming.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2014
Some of it came from the MOD said Tipple, but the LEP was currently developing, with the support of the county council, a programme looking at the profile of the available service staff, the market opportunities, and the skillsets or qualifications required to help them transfer. “We are working with the universities and colleges across Oxfordshire to develop suitable support.”
As a training provider, Godding confirmed that she had seen an increase in armed forces personnel enrolling for training courses.
Sunderland, from an Army background, said that the MOD generally provided time and money to demobbed service personnel, enabling them to undertake suitable courses for their chosen civilian career.
Tipple admitted that still happened, but the LEP was trying to turn that military process into a career path opportunity for both the service personnel and Oxfordshire businesses.
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