Agenda item

The Director of Tourism, Culture and Inward Investment will give a presentation to provide an update on the Employment Hub (slides attached).

Councillor Clair, (Deputy City Mayor with responsibility for Culture, Leisure, Sport and Regulatory Services), introduced this item, welcoming the work being done through the project.

The Head of Economic Regeneration then gave a presentation, a copy of which had been circulated with the agenda, updating the Commission on the Employment Hub project.  During the presentation, he drew attention to the following points:

·           This was a sub-regional project with 10 formal partners;

·           20 applications to the Leicester Jobs Fund had been approved and 20 individuals appointed.  This included individuals with disabilities, carers and an ex-offender;

·           Employer enquiries had spiked in May 2018, as this was when the project had been launched; and

·           The project was working to increase the number of businesses and individuals registering their details on the new Employment Hub website as the project developed.

In response to a specific query from Members around the transport and logistics sector, it was noted that many businesses from this sector were in the county.  Several of these already had engaged with the project, and officers would be happy to engage with any others that were interested.  If there were several businesses from any particular sector that had similar needs, sector specific events could be organised, (as had happened with the social care sector).

The Head of Economic Regeneration confirmed that the contractual target for this project was to engage with 220 small and medium-sized enterprises, with 165 delivering an employment outcome.  Long term tracking of individuals would be more difficult to do, and was not the intention of the project, due to data protection restrictions for details held by partner organisations and as the project would not be advised of the outcome of every vacancy.  Officers would do their best to capture this information, but not all opportunities were created by the Council, many being created by the businesses themselves.

There was some concern that the project could unintentionally channel people in to low paid employment, but it was accepted that this could be to do with skill levels.  Low paid employment could be a better option for some people than having to be on state benefits long-term, but it was recognised that it was important to encourage skills progression and higher-level apprenticeships, and to ensure that providers were providing high value opportunities, as increasing skills was the route to higher wages.

It was noted that the data being gathered through the project was sufficient to help individuals and business access the right support, both in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation and to encourage participants to engage.  A simple registration form therefore was used to gather information, but this meant that limited data was available on individuals.  Consideration was being given to what other data could be collected and tracked through the project.

Members also noted that the low carbon industry had a low profile through this project.  The Head of Economic Regeneration explained that most businesses engaging with the project were not in the energy sector and were more likely to identify themselves with another sector, such as manufacturing or engineering, than low carbon.

AGREED:

1)    That the presentation be noted; and

2)    That all Councillors be asked to encourage individuals and employers to engage with the Employment Hub project through the project’s website: https://www.leicesteremploymenthub.co.uk/

Councillor Kitterick left the meeting during consideration of this item