Member Article

North East festive focus: Michelle Rainbow, NELEP

Ahead of North East firms shutting up shop in time for a well-earned festive break, we’re quickly catching up with a few of the region’s business leaders before their holiday festivities begin.

Today we welcome Michelle Rainbow, Skills for Business Manager at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), to share her thoughts on the year gone by, the region as a whole and what she plans to do this Christmas.

Your Business

If you had to choose one thing - what are you most proud of your company achieving this year, why?

I’m really proud of the way that the North East LEP has really started to lead the way on key areas. We secured the continuation of the JEREMIE funds investing until 2023 for North East businesses; we are leading the way nationally with our Career Benchmark pilot and influencing government policy decisions on career guidance.

Our Growth Hub is really gathering momentum, and I would encourage all SMEs to use it is a one stop shop for business support and access to finance.

What was the single biggest challenge faced by your firm in 2016?

It has been an incredibly turbulent year for the UK and the North East not least with the European Referendum and subsequent political events, both national and more locally. The biggest challenge has been to steer our way through this and keep on achieving the goals we set ourselves for 2016.

I think that the small team at the LEP has done a remarkable job to achieve what we have and I’m very proud to be part of it.

Can you tell us one thing your business is doing in 2017 that really excites you?

We will be rolling out the careers pilot to allow more schools in the region, including early years education, to access transformative benchmarks.

This will help create a careers system that will achieve our ambition that every young person in the North East is able to identify routes to a successful working life, has the opportunity from an early age to have experiences and exposure to the world of work and meet people along the way who can inspire and motivate them.

We are also excited to learn more about Government’s £23 billion announcement for infrastructure and innovation over the next five years and to see how we can bring some of that funding to the North East.

Your Region

Which North East firm has impressed you the most this year, why?

I’m going to cheat a bit on this one – one of the challenges we set ourselves at the beginning of the year was to create a network of Enterprise Advisors, senior business leaders who would be willing to volunteer to work with school leaders to improve the interaction between employers and education.

This helps schools provide their students with meaningful encounters with employers and local businesses. I am impressed with every one of the 70 businesses that stepped forward to support us with this – it just shows how much ambition there is within the region to support the next generation.

Are there any emerging businesses in the region that’ve caught your eye this year that you’ve been previously unaware of?

The North East LEP recently commissioned a series of videos that will be used throughout schools and colleges in 2017 to provide students with information about the types of opportunities that are available to them in the North East. One of the companies that supported us (and big thanks to all who did) was Quest UAV.

They are a North East based manufacturer of small, fixed wing unmanned aircraft (sUAV) that are designed to carry sensors such as high resolution cameras. It’s a fantastic example of innovation – practical applications for use of technology and hugely inspiring.

Is there an industry or sector of the North East business community which you expect to really take off next year?

We’ve spent a lot of time this year considering this very question and the growth sectors in our refreshed Strategic Economic Plan are probably ones we are all familiar with – automotive, health and life sciences, offshore and digital and creative.

However one sector which we often overlook is the Education sector, which accounts for about 7% of our total economy in the North East LEP area. We have great assets in the North East – 4 universities, 10 Further Education colleges, 1300 schools and a host of private businesses operating successfully in this sector.

I would argue that we need to nurture this sector – having the right skills is key to our continued growth both in the North East and nationally.

Yourself

What was your first job?

I had lots of part-time jobs when I was in sixth form and then during university but my first and probably my favourite was working in a bakery doing a couple of night-shifts over weekends – the pay wasn’t brilliant but we had unlimited warm bread and I will always love that smell!

If you weren’t doing what you do, is there a job you’d love to have?

I love my job, so I’m not sure - running a bed and breakfast on a remote Scottish Island perhaps?

What do you do on Christmas day?

I really enjoy cooking so everyone comes to us for Christmas – I usually cook for between 15 to 20 people – it’s chaos, but I love it.

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