New skills strategy to help Manchester residents into employment

Manchester City Council has set out a new skills strategy to help residents get the training they need to find secure jobs.

Based on information from local residents, employers and education providers, the strategy focuses on five key priorities.

These include ensuring Manchester residents have good jobs with fair pay, high-level training to attract investment to the city and are part of an inclusive and equal city.  

The strategy will also ensure people have the skills, technology and transport they need to be connected to opportunities and will aim to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2038.

Cllr John Hacking, Executive Member for Skills, Employment and Leisure at Manchester City Council, said: ‘Manchester has a growing and well-deserved reputation as a global city and is rightly recognised as a place that is at the forefront of innovation and development across a wide range of different business, economic, and learning sectors. 

‘We think it’s only right that local residents are given every chance to be a part of this and to share in the city’s success, and are determined to do everything we can to make this happen and to narrow the gap between those who are thriving both economically and in their lives, and those who are not.

‘Our new work and skills strategy will play an important part in this by helping ensure that everyone in Manchester has the skills and training they need to secure a good job and a good life for themselves and their families.’

The strategy is based on research by the council conducted during the early stages of the pandemic, examining its clinical and economic consequences.

According to the council’s findings, the pandemic has caused an increasing polarisation between those in successful employment and those who are struggling.

People in stable, highly skilled work are more likely to have experienced some benefits from the pandemic, such as lower exposure to the virus, increased work flexibility and increased savings.

However, people in low paid, insecure work were more likely to have experienced the opposite, being more exposed to the virus and experiencing reduced income and economic resilience.

The negative impacts of Covid-19 were found to affect people from marginalised backgrounds who experience racial inequalities the most.

Other factors such as Brexit, the war in Ukraine and cost of living crisis have also affected employment opportunities in the city, which councillors have had to consider when forming the skills strategy.

It’s hoped the plan will help the city’s most vulnerable residents to get into work and to build stable incomes again.  

Photo by Aswin Mahesh