inspire BUSINESS WEST – CONNECTING BUSINESSES COMMENT & OPINION Keeping you up-to-date with the latest political policies and decisions that affect South West businesses
Keeping hold of our graduates
By Ian Bell, director of Bath Chamber at Business West
From time to time, I have written about the importance of keeping young people who have graduated from our universities and college in the area after they have finished their studies. They bring energy, enthusiasm and fresh ideas which will be a great benefit to our local economy. There are two main reasons students
usually give for not staying around – the cost of housing and the lack of graduate-level jobs. But now there’s a new initiative which could vastly improve the links between business and the educational institutions and grow our talent base. A combination of Bath Spa University, the University of Bath, Bath College and the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership has been awarded challenge competition funding by the Office for Students. Together they have formed the
GradTalent Development Agency which will help graduate retention by providing businesses with a special service to help recruit, retain and develop local talent. It’s a three-year project that will be working with mainly SMEs. The scheme will involve employment opportunities of anything over 16 hours a week and they will even work with companies to create a rotation opportunity where a couple of smaller employers might want to share the talents of a new graduate. This is not a massive project, aiming to
develop just 25 opportunities for this year’s graduates and 75 opportunities for next year’s. But it’s a great start and will actually put some resources into getting the system up and running. Hopefully many more businesses will get involved and it will generate much more conversation about a potentially really important injection of fresh ideas into our economy.
For more information email Vanessa Doust at
v.doust@
bathspa.ac.uk
12 insight JULY/AUGUST 2019
Helping ex-offenders back into employment
By Nina Skubala (pictured), initiative manager at Business West
Chief constable Andy Marsh, Nathan Peacey, partner at Foot Anstey and James Durie, chief executive of Bristol Chamber of Commerce & West of England Initiative gathered 100 business leaders recently at Foot Anstey Temple Quarters offices to set the challenge of creating an inclusive workplace for Bristol. The room was astonished to learn from Andy
Marsh that crime levels are increasing in Bristol, particularly knife crime. Mayor Marvin Rees then quoted the words of John Savage in our own 2050: High in Hope vision stating that “crime is not good for inward investment” and urged the room of business leaders to take note of the issue. The room was presented with statistics
demonstrating the lack of success prison has on reducing re-offending rates and the high cost of re-offending to society. He asked the room: how can this city break the cycle? Could creating pathways into legitimate work break the cycle and provide opportunities for offenders to leave crime behind? Eva Hamilton, Founder of Key4Life,
appears to have a solution. Key4Life supports and empowers some of the most disenfranchised young men in prison and those at risk of going to prison to secure employment and reintegrate into society on a positive path away from crime. Now in its sixth year, the charity has been supported by Business West and Avon Somerset Police since inception. Key4Life’s innovative seven-step programme
is delivered with the support of businesses and trained volunteer mentors, and is based on three pillars: • Emotional resilience and unlocking negative behaviours that led to conviction
• Employability support to gain work experience and secure a job
• On-going support to reintegrate into the community and sustain employment for lasting change She introduced the audience to three smart, charismatic and articulate young men, Louis, Rene and Liam. Each of the men described their troubled upbringing – misbehaving at school, victims of bullying, addiction and a lack of boundaries which led to them being involved
with guns, drugs and violence. They spoke keenly about their
Key4Life journeys and their desire to
improve themselves and the difficulty in finding an employer that will look beyond their conviction. Rene gained a degree in Sociology, Louis enjoyed a work placement with Willmott Dixon and Liam’s work placement with Yeo Valley has led to a permanent job and even an invitation to meet the Queen. Representatives from Yeo Valley and Willmott Dixon commended the scheme and the placements. With the demonstration that the Key4Life’s
method works, with every £1 invested in Key4Life generating £17.06 in social value over three years, James Durie invited the room to consider offering three-day work placements and mentoring to the participants of the Key4Life programme. Senior leaders across a host of sectors could be seen completing the form offering their support to Key4Life in Bristol.
Any businesses that are willing to offer work- placements or mentoring, please visit:
www.key4life.org.uk/mentoring For advice on employing ex-offenders, please visit
www.nacro.org.uk/recruitingsafelyguide
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
