Careers guidance programme expands to support North East businesses

A programme designed to improve careers guidance in North East schools is set to be expanded out to support local businesses.

North East Ambition was launched in 2017 in a bid to ensure all North East schools and colleges achieve the Gatsby Good Career Guidance benchmarks by 2024.

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has announced is expanding the scheme to support businesses and ensure a skills pipeline for the future.

As part of the initiative, skills facilitators will work directly with businesses to identify their long-term needs and develop a bespoke plan to support them in addressing current and future skills gaps.

Information for businesses will also be added to the North East Ambition portal, alongside a Data Hub to provide the latest labour market information.

A programme designed to improve careers guidance in North East schools has been such a huge success, the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is expanding it to support businesses and ensure a skills pipeline for the future.

Michelle Rainbow, skills director at the North East LEP, commented: “The expansion of North East Ambition is a great way to continue to build upon the fantastic work that has been done so far.

“We know the labour market is facing rapid change with increased digitisation and new technologies and businesses will need to prepare for and adapt to that.

“By harnessing the success of North East Ambition, we can engage with businesses and facilitate the collaboration needed to allow employers to invest in the right skills and future-proof their workforce.”

Elaine Inglis, assistant director of careers at Education Development Trust added: “We are very excited to be building on the excellent work undertaken by the North East LEP in establishing the North East Ambition programme.

“Having employees with the right skills will play a key role in helping local employers recover from the effects that COVID19 has had on the economy.

“We know that for many SMEs it can be challenging to understand what skills development and training options are available and how to access these, which is where we can provide support.”