With unemployment rates across Greater Manchester decreasing over the past quarter, employment specialist, Seetec, continues to play a part in helping to lower these statistics with their work with businesses and employers across the region.
On Thursday 1st November, over 100 industry professionals gathered as part of Seetec’s sell-out event with Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP) at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Employment figures in Greater Manchester is the highest in 10 years with over 1,255,000 residents of working age (16-64) in employment, which makes the timing perfect for the two companies to combine forces for this a joint networking event.
The night saw talks from employability experts from all over the region and while guests networked with some of Manchester’s key players across the skills and employment sector. The event discussed some of the big labour market challenges for the next 10-20 years such as the EU exit and automation that is predicted could replace up to 35% of UK jobs.
The theme of the event – The Links between Employability and Skills, with presentations from Director of Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network (GMLPN), Andy Fawcett and Assistant Director of Strategy at Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Matt Ainsworth.
Andy said “Moving forward we need an employment and skills system which is not only good at getting people into work but is also good at keeping them in work. Devolution in Greater Manchester presents us with a real opportunity to do this.
In the next twenty years robotics and information technology will displace up to a third of all jobs – our challenge will be to retrain individuals for the jobs of the future.”
Matt was able to lead his 20 minute presentation on the Greater Manchester Work and Skills Strategy and discuss how the GMCA are working with businesses across the region to continue their plans into 2019.
He said “Even though Greater Manchester now has almost record employment levels, many families are still struggling to make ends meet meaning that work is not a guaranteed way out of poverty. Good work, paying a real living wage, with opportunities to progress and develop is critical and this can only be achieved if the employability and skills systems work in tandem. Moreover, businesses must rise to the challenge, which is why the Mayor of Greater Manchester has launched a consultation on the creation of a Good Employment Charter. With good jobs, quality employability and careers advice, supported by a locally responsive skills system we have an opportunity to make Greater Manchester a true powerhouse.”
The huge turnout of guests on the night also heard exclusive talks from Ian Tully, Head of Employability at Seetec and Scott Parkin who is the Executive Chairman at the IEP, who have 2,753 individual members across the UK.
Scott commented “These networking events are what the Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP) does best, bringing people together to share knowledge and understanding for the benefit of their own delivery practice, impacting on service users in a very positive way. The employability sector is full of professionals supporting the development of people, often with challenging issues that impact their independence and their ability to enter or remain in employment, and this is no easy job. By sharing and supporting each other we are building a profession of choice that is recognised by employers, government and the general public as a valued occupation and one that really make a difference on a daily basis. The IEP has a series of networking events taking place across the UK throughout 2018 /19 and we urge people to get booked in to one of them in their local area”.
As part of the joint event, Ian Tully stressed the importance of partnership working across industry sectors to improve the skills offer for businesses in the region.
Ian said “There is much value in having so many professionals from the skills and employability sector in the room at one time to discuss the hot employment topics in Greater Manchester and ensure that all parties are working now to ensure a bright future for the city. It’s brilliant to have a such a diverse cross section of organisations attending from small providers to local authorities. We hope to further develop these joint events between Seetec and IEP so we can continue to join forces for the future benefit of the industry.”
To culminate the evening, attendees were invited to join in round table discussions, curated by Seetec, surrounding the GMCA Good Employment Charter. The aim of the charter is to help employers reach excellent employment standards and become more successful as a result. Guests were able to share their thoughts on how to improve employers engagement and the benefits of employers and employees joining the charter.
For further information on Seetec and their upcoming events, visit https://www.seetec.co.uk/ or follow @SeetecInspire on Twitter.
