Employability and enterprise - the keys to rescuing Hull’s lost generation

The statistics make grim reading - 5,000 18-24-year-olds in Hull claiming Job Seekers Allowance; 2,000 classified as long-term unemployed; 700 16-18-year-olds not in education, employment or training (so-called NEETs).

Hull has a deep-seated youth unemployment problem which has grown as young people have been hit disproportionately by the economic downturn. So what can be done to prevent a “lost generation” of young people without the focus, discipline, confidence and opportunity that employment provides?

Of course, there’s no simple solution to an issue with causes much more complex than simply fewer employment opportunities in a fragile economy. However, increasingly, two words feature prominently as organisations across Hull strive to rescue that lost generation - employability and enterprise.

Those words were recurring themes at a Hull and East Yorkshire Bondholders breakfast meeting focused on initiatives to help young people into work. They are also at the heart of an encouraging wave of ventures in Hull, such as the Future Hull initiative, Employability Charter and Studio School, aimed at making the city’s young people ready for the world of work.

The concept of employability recognises that many young people simply don’t have the basic skills and qualities employers require. It’s a key reason for the disconnect of so many young people unable to get a job when there are substantial numbers of unfilled vacancies.

JobCentre Plus District Manager Stuart Griffiths told the Bondholders meeting that, while the economic situation had made getting a job much tougher, it was a myth that there were no jobs available. Despite high unemployment in Hull, there were 2,000 unfilled vacancies in September.

Unfortunately, he said, too many young people aren’t suitable for those jobs. Lack of work ethic, confidence and motivation; untidy appearance and dress standards; and poor literacy - these are among a patchwork of issues that mean so many of them are not “employable”. Many companies will rather not hire anyone than take on a young person without the basics to be a positive, professional and productive employee.



Talented Hull Studio School student
Harry Kemp

It’s a major problem now being addressed by a series of initiatives that recognise the need for a sea change away from an obsessive focus on academic achievement to producing young people who have the practical skills, attitude and aptitude to be ready for work.

It’s a change warmly welcomed by business. While no-one wishes to denigrate academic achievement, it’s clear that the only thing that really matters in today’s jobs market is how employable a person is.

The Bondholders meeting showcased the Future Hull initiative which has employability at its heart. Its purpose is to provide a “one-stop shop” for both employers and young people looking for work. It will cut through the complexities that deter employers from hiring young people, offering apprenticeships or making work placements available.

Mr Griffiths said it would “hide the wires” to be a single, simple point of contact for businesses to access support and funding for recruitment, training and apprenticeships. Crucially, it will match employable young people with recruiting companies.

Reinforcing the employability theme, Hull Future’s key objective turns the unemployment issue on its head to focus on the numbers of young people in employment. It aims to raise the percentage employed from a desperately-low 42% to 50%, in line with comparable Northern cities.

The aims of Future Hull and the focus on employability were endorsed and reinforced by other speakers at the Bondholders event.

Sam Whitaker, Chief Executive of the Hull Esteem Consortium which is transforming the physical landscape of education in Hull through the Building Schools for the Future programme, said 33 companies had committed their support to Hull’s Employability Charter. Under the scheme, businesses are asked to sign up to the Charter to recognise the work that is being done alongside education providers to embed employability skills.

Former Apprentice star Claire Young brought together employability and enterprise in talking about Hull’s ground-breaking Studio School, for which she is the Enterprise Ambassador. Her presentation was timely, coming the day before the official opening of the school at an event that showcased how it is developing young people with all the right employability skills.

One of the first of its kind, the Studio School has been founded by Hull College and enables young people to “learn in the real world”. The entire culture and ethos is business-like. Office hours apply as students study core GCSE subjects, including English, maths and science, alongside vocational topics. Their work is focused on business and enterprise through projects for partner companies.

As a guest at the official opening, I and many others were deeply impressed by how mature, articulate and professional the school’s young people are. They engaged confidently with business leaders, using various creative ways to showcase their achievements, attributes and projects.

Principal Paul Styles told guests the school was focused on instilling “motivation, confidence, drive and ambition” in young people. It’s early days, but it seems to be working. Many of the students have ambitions to launch their own businesses - not only are they employable, they want to be employers. They have certainly embraced the enterprise spirit at the heart of the Studio School concept.

The Studio School official opening was performed by Education Minister Lord Hill. He talked about how studio schools “bring education and the world of work completely together” and said the combination of educational qualifications and vocational skills was “an idea whose time has come”. He applauded Hull College for pioneering the concept and congratulated Hull parents for choosing to send their children to the Studio School.

Those parents have recognised that their children - indeed Hull’s young people - need something different. In the “real world”, employability and enterprise are the keys to employment and career success. Hull may have a huge youth unemployment problem, but it also has the big ideas and innovative approaches to tackle it.

Find out more about Hull’s employability initiatives via these links:

Future Hullhttp://www.futurehull.org

Employability Charterhttp://www.employabilitycharter.co.uk

Hull Studio Schoolhttp://www.hullstudioschool.co.uk

As HDLive proves, connected Hull is making it happen

Is Hull connected? Is it a buzzing place? Can it counter the increasing concentration of economic activity in and around London?

These were some of the questions posed by BBC Radio 4 and Dragons’ Den presenter Evan Davis as he brought his analysis of the UK’s economic challenges home to an audience in Hull. 

Speaking at the Hull Digital (HDLive) conference, he closed in from a helicopter view of the world economy and the UK’s place in an increasingly global marketplace to the prospects of Hull finding a prosperous future.

The key, he said, was “connectivity”. Successful places would be those with “physical, virtual and cultural connectivity” - places where businesses and business networks link to and learn from others.

A vibrant cultural life was vital, said Davis, to “sow the seeds of economic renaissance”. Cities had to make themselves attractive for entrepreneurs and employers to live in, as well as work, so that they say: “This is a buzzing place. I’ll set up a business here”.

Evan Davis: Connectivity will be the key
characteristic of prosperous cities

Davis had words of encouragement for Hull. From what he had learned, the city had a chance. It had a “great broadband network and a growing cultural sector”. It had a thriving university and a student population that adds vibrancy to life in the city.

After those fundamentals, it was about the “mindset and view of the world” of the city’s business community, he said. “That’s where you come in”, Davis told his audience.

So, if it’s about connectivity, culture and attitude, the event that brought Davis to Hull augurs well. HDLive is an extraordinary home-grown success, bringing world-class technology experts to a city said to have the fastest-growing digital community outside London.

HDLive is the epitome of connectivity. It has grown out of Hull Digital, a connected community of digital start-ups and SMEs.  HDLive saw 250 people gather to link and learn. The event was a tweetfest as, throughout the day, members of the audience took to Twitter and blogging platforms to share their views and observations with connections inside and outside the lecture theatre at the University of Hull Business School.

During breaks, the air was buzzing with excited conversations as businesses forged and reinforced mutually beneficial connections. Many of those conversations set HD Live in the context of a city determined to challenge false perceptions of its cultural life and economic prospects.

Davis talked about the UK’s economy being at a crossroads. Manufacturing had been transferred abroad, as the UK focused on financial and commercial services. But, in the wake of the global crash, Britain was left with an economy that was “not broad enough to pay the bills”, said Davis. It was too dependent on service industries and too “clustered” in London and the South East.

So, he was asked, what would be the impact on Hull of Siemens investing in manufacturing - a wind turbine factory - in the city? Davis said it partly depended on the degree of commitment by Siemens to local employment and skills, but it would certainly raise the city’s game and build momentum “in a world of spin-off benefits”. However, Davis cautioned against relying totally on inward investment. “You have to make it happen,” he said.

So is Hull making it happen? It’s easy to say ‘no’ when news of Comet going into administration brought the toll of local jobs placed under threat to almost 1,000 in just two weeks. However, the mood at HDLive was far from downbeat.

Event organiser Jon Moss, founder of Hull Digital, said the digital sector was a source of opportunity and optimism for the region. His vision was for Hull to become “a hub for digital innovation, enterprise and technology” and HDLive showed what could be achieved.

Moss pointed to plans by developer Wykeland, a HDLive sponsor, for a Centre for Digital Innovation (C4Di) near Hull’s Fruit Market, which would act as a focus and catalyst for digital entrepreneurship. He also highlighted the Digital Estuary website which profiles scores of digital and technology businesses around the Humber and said telecommunications provider KC was rolling out the fastest broadband network in the country, which would act as a magnet for investment, encourage start-ups and enable existing businesses to grow.

Kevin Walsh, Chief Executive of KC, another HDLive sponsor, highlighted the digital sector, which is growing at 4% per cent annually despite the weak UK economy, as a major opportunity for the region.

He said KC’s rollout of its Lightstream super-fast fibre network was providing local businesses with the UK’s best broadband and it had established a £600,000 loans fund, KC Invest, to support digital start-ups. Both were stimulating enterprise and providing a platform for business growth.

Walsh read from a recent press report in which Manchester boasted about having 50 miles of super-fast fibre broadband and said this paled in comparison with Hull: “We’ve laid 300 miles and we’re still going”. He said HDLive was about inspiring ideas that became businesses and told delegates: “We’re betting KC’s future on your big ideas”.

Of course, many of those big ideas will start as small businesses, but a theme of the conference was how the power of digital technology had transformed the rules of business. “Today, the smallest amount of capital can help to create a global brand,” said Walsh.

HDLive certainly provided plenty of food for thought and prompts for action, from a series of inspiring speakers. They included the world’s leading mobile digital analyst, Horace Dediu; Roan Lavery, founder of Free Agent, one of the world’s most popular online accounting apps; and Simon Mottram, who has employed the power of digital platforms and communications to build a successful luxury cycling wear brand. On another grim day for Hull’s economy, it was so heartening and motivating.

As Evan Davis explained so expertly, the economy is changing rapidly, in part because of the seismic impact of technology. Britain is in need of new economic models, he said. It’s clear that the same applies to Hull. As traditional industries and employers, such as Seven Seas, disappear, new sources of employment have to be found.

The silver lining is that Hull is becoming ever more connected - the key requirement for economic prosperity identified by Davis - and has opportunities that are about the future rather than the past.

It is becoming better connected to its neighbouring communities across the Humber, assisted by the creation of the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, improved cross-estuary local authority and business collaboration, and the slashing of the Humber Bridge tolls.

Hull also has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to replace declining industries of the past with a vital industry of the future, renewable energy, in all in its forms - offshore wind, tidal power, biomass and biofuels. Everything possible is being done locally to seal the Siemens deal, which will be the catalyst for a wave of green energy investments in the Humber.

Now the Government must provide the necessary long-term policy certainty and financial arrangements to encourage global businesses to commit to long-term investments totalling billions of pounds. Hull and the Humber are crying out for ministers to enable a new growth industry for UK Plc to emerge, flourish and create long-term jobs for thousands of local people.

Finally, as HD Live demonstrated, Hull has a vibrant and ambitious community of digital and technology businesses eager to seize opportunities for collaboration and growth, building on rapidly-developing infrastructure and connected networks. They’re certainly responding to Evan Davis’ challenge to make it happen.