Manchester’s economic growth ambitions begin with skills.
Skilled workers power business growth, which in turn drives the economy and creates the prosperity that will help the city region to reinvest in housing, transport and infrastructure, and improved public services.
It’s a virtuous circle that requires long-term planning and investment, with the pay-off often coming only decades later. But Manchester City Council recognises this – it’s why being a highly-skilled city is one of its five priorities and sits at the heart of its 10-year plan to solve some of its urgent challenges and build a bigger economy.
With its plan for the next decade due to be published soon, it’s likely skills will only take on greater importance. Stats from the Industrial Strategy Council show that around 20 per cent of the º£½ÇÊÓƵ workforce will be significantly under-skilled for their jobs by 2030. It’s essential that we address this gap if Manchester’s ambitions are to be realised.
There are many ways to approach the skills gap – but a fundamental element starts in schools. Businesses aren’t getting the talent through the door that they need to accelerate their growth plans because, often, a traditional academic education doesn’t unlock the ability of many young people. Schemes like T-Levels offer a solution.
Launched in September 2020, they are broadly equivalent to three A-levels and cover topics like Healthcare Science, Finance and Legal Services. The courses include industry placement for a minimum of 45 days, giving students valuable hands-on experience.
This year Lloyds welcomed 140 students onto placements – up from 70 in 2023 – including young people from The Manchester College. The students work alongside mentors on live projects right across our business, including web design and software engineering, giving them the hands-on experience they crave and that many traditional routes of further education don’t offer.
Crucially, unlike many vocational education programmes, T-levels offer a core focus on tech skills. As the world evolves rapidly, the skills the Manchester economy needed yesterday aren’t necessarily those we need today, or tomorrow. In fact, in the World Economic Forum’s 2021 report, it was estimated that 40 per cent of key skills would change in the next five years. So, it’s vital that any focus on skills is constantly evolving to keep pace with the modern world.
And upskilling when it comes to tech is no less important outside of the classroom. As the second-largest economy outside of London, Manchester is the home of a thriving scene of innovation and entrepreneurialism. Tech is undoubtedly helping fuel that, with more than more than 69,000 creative, digital and tech sector roles advertised in Greater Manchester last year.
However, it ranks 21st in the country for digital adoption, and lagging behind here threatens to dampen the city’s growth prospects.
Initiatives are already underway to address this. The Greater Manchester Digital Security Hub is supporting and mentoring growing digital security businesses in the city, while the region has also created a Digital Inclusion Taskforce, which will see its 250 members work to identify barriers to digital inclusion.
This is positive progress, but skills beyond digital will be needed to create the well-rounded economy set out in the City Council’s 10-year plan if growth is to be balanced and sustainable.
Like much of the rest of the country, Manchester faces a shortage of homes. And as investment starts flowing towards the region to build more – our MADE Partnership last week announced plans to build 2,150 new homes in Tameside – skills will be needed to help build those, particularly in a sector facing a labour shortage.
One example of an initiative working to remedy this is Regeneration Brainery, a not-for-profit academy that brings young people from deprived backgrounds into the housing and regeneration sector. Set up in 2017, the organisation works with more than 4,000 students across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ every year and we’re one of many to partner with the charity to reach even more young people and tap into the talent that will be needed to address the housing crisis.
I’m proud to be Northern and I know how important initiatives like these will be in bringing through the next generation of Northerners to unlock the region’s true potential. Collectively, we need to ensure that we’re giving people of all ages opportunities to thrive, whether that’s tech, housebuilding or healthcare and beyond, because that is the foundation for a prosperous economy.
- Emily Cox is Ambassador for the North at Lloyds Banking Group
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