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LANCASHIRE LEADERS By Dan Clough


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Energy partner: Runway sponsor: Sponsored by: THE POWER OF SKILLS


For adopted Lancastrian Dr Michele Lawty-Jones, skills development and the empowerment that can give people has been embedded since childhood through the best role model anyone can have – her mum.


Now the director of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub, which works with a raft of partners to support the skills agenda to promote growth and productivity throughout the county, it was those humble beginnings that instilled in Michele the drive and determination to get where she is today.


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Michele grew up in Cleethorpes on the Lincolnshire coast. Dad was a lorry driver who spent long days away from home and on the road heading to Scandinavia and other far-off places. And Mum, Sheila, was a dinner lady. Until she decided to make a change.


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“By the time I was about ready to go off to high school, Mum decided to go off to night school and retrain,” says Michele. “She became an office administrator and then worked her way all the way up to office manager.


“So in terms of what I am passionate about – the power of skills and what it can do in terms of mobility and employment prospects – I watched my mum go to night school. In fact, I went with her to some of them, to do Excel and stuff like that which was quite interesting. So even though I was from, I suppose, a working-class background, the aspiration and progression was there through skills.”


Early on, Michele decided she wanted to be an architect, so at sixth form she studied A levels in maths, chemistry and art and went off to do work experience with a local architect.


Michele says: “It was a bit of a weird combination, but I really enjoyed art. And it totally put me off being an architect.


“We say at the moment that young people need to see it to be it. We have young people going out from year seven now, experiencing different workplaces and meeting different employers.


to come to Preston. My college tutors thought I was mad to turn down York. But I chose Preston because they had more flexibility in how you built up your credits, so I could do a mix of maths, psychology and education, which is what I wanted to do.”


Eventually majoring in psychology, Michele went to London to do her PhD and then, having been offered three very different jobs, chose to return to Lancashire at Career Link, the careers service before Connexions, to build up


One of the standout moments from my time at the NWDA was that we were able to invest in


leadership and management, in mentoring, and we upskilled 12,500 leaders and managers


Getting to know what they do like and what they don’t like. And I have that reflection of when I spent two weeks in that architect’s office, part of which was colouring in elevations of buildings, and it really didn’t get me excited about it when it could have done.”


Michele then turned down an offer from the University of York to study at what was then Lancashire Polytechnic, now better known as the University of Lancashire.


She says: “I was the first in my family to go to university and nobody understood why I wanted


a business unit offering psychology and career services to adults and businesses.


“That was my Sliding Doors moment,” says Michele. “Through that I started to get more involved in the young people side as well, and supporting young people to transition into the world of work.


“And from that I started to get more excited about the policy side and drawing funding into Lancashire to support young people and adults, boost employment prospects and that kind of thing.”


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