Opportunities to learn new skills, get professional training and start a new career
- We will integrate our council-run employment service, the Work Zone, with our adult education service to create the largest provider of employment advice, skills and training in the borough. It will support life-long learning, helping people to change careers at any time in their life and will be linked to local employers so it is relevant to where you live and to opportunities in your area.
- We will create a specific programme of support for people aged 50 and over to help them back into work with dignity and respect.
- We will design specialist programmes that recognise ‘softer’ outcomes for people that need to start their journey into work by building self-confidence, rather than academic or vocational skills.
- We will work with local employers in key sectors to understand the skills required and the routes in to work to access these employment opportunities. Using our Skills Escalators, we will provide advice and training to targeted groups, to support people to advance their careers from entry level to senior positions. We will encourage employers to offer work-based learning and to increase the number of apprenticeships they offer so we can increase social mobility. We will also look at opportunities around ‘skills share’, so that people leaving professional trades can help to inspire the next generation of trades people.
- We will work with businesses to harness the opportunity for green new jobs by supporting people to get the skills required to work in industries that support net zero transition. We’ll work with employers to create new courses and work with people who are currently unemployed, or in low skilled or low paid jobs to re-train. Focus areas will be Housing, energy and construction (including retrofit), Sustainable food, agriculture and land management (including natural flood management), Transition to low carbon and renewable energy, and carbon capture and storage.
