Keeping talent in Lancashire

[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” separator_top_type=”none” separator_top_height=”50px” separator_top_angle_point=”50″ separator_bottom_type=”none” separator_bottom_height=”50px” separator_bottom_angle_point=”50″ style=”margin: 0px;padding: 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”false” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”4/5″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]The importance of training and maintaining local talent

Think of business in Lancashire and many people may come up with a nostalgic image of cotton mills and smoke billowing from factory chimneys.

But this wistful view of the Lancashire of old is not helping employers to retain the best creative, IT, manufacturing and engineering talents in the county.

Lancashire today is a vibrant, creative, thriving business community and it is important that employers do what they can to change young people’s negative perceptions of the area and show them that their careers can be just as successful in Lancashire as they could be in one of the country’s big cities.

Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire and Edge Hill University all help to educate the county’s talented youngsters, and bring many thousands of students to the county each year, but more needs to be done to encourage them to seek employment in the area after they have completed their degrees.

Skills shortages

The county’s three universities have received huge support from Lancashire County Council to help retain talent in the county but some skills sets are still in short supply and the area’s future prosperity is at stake if this can’t be reversed.

Companies in Lancashire tend to follow a pattern of employing highly skilled workers in their mid-50s and 60s as well as the younger, early 20s generation but there is a skills gap amongst workers in their 30s and 40s because work was in short supply during their youth and employers didn’t have the funds or inclination to train them.

In order to compensate for this skills gap, many employers are incentivising recent graduates or newly trained employers in their 20s with higher salaries than their older counterparts, to ensure they remain in Lancashire.  

Business is booming 

Despite these skills shortages, Lancashire is home to some big names in business who operate on not just a local or national level, but also internationally.

Manufacturing, for example, is thriving in the county thanks to the likes of BAE Systems, the UK’s largest manufacturing employer and UK’s biggest employer of professional engineers. BAE Systems Maritime has also secured a contract to manufacture four Vanguard replacement submarines from its Barrow site.

Business sectors where industry training is regarded as highly as a university degree, such as the financial industry, are also thriving in Lancashire, with many young people enjoying working in their dream career away from the hustle and bustle of the city. With high quality training programmes available locally to help people become chartered accountants and companies in Lancashire offering fantastic promotion and development opportunities, it is the ideal location for the next generation of workers to stay throughout their careers.
 
What next for Lancashire? 

Lancashire, and the businesses based in it, need to start talking themselves up. The county has had 40 years of negativity surrounding its economy and it is time this was reversed and it becomes an area talked about for its fantastic career opportunities alongside its fantastic countryside.

With our big city neighbours of Liverpool and Manchester edging ever closer to electing their own mayors, it is time someone stood up for Lancashire and helps to put us on the economic map.

Many business leaders are campaigning for districts to work together, and this can only be a positive for the area. We all love the red rose county, so let’s join forces and make sure the next generation of business leaders stick with us and help make the area the place to work in the future. After all, success breeds success, so the more talent we can attract to the area, the better for all businesses in the county.
[/cs_text][/cs_column][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/5″ style=”padding: 0px;”][x_image type=”none” src=”https://www.rebusrecruitment.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Mark-Schofield.png” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=””][cs_text]Mark Schofield
Director – Haworths Accountancy
Past President of the North West Society of Chartered Accountants[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]