Business of Yorkshire Conference: Creating the skilled workforce of the future

How to ensure Yorkshire’s and the Humber’s workforce has the skills and expertise to fuel the region’s economy was the topic of one of the seminars at The Business of Yorkshire Conference, in Leeds.
Examining the issue was a panel chaired by TheBusinessDesk.com’s joint managing director Alex Turner.
On the panel were Jessica Armstrong, head of professional services at Lloyds Banking Group, Jo Glover, director of organisational development at EMIS Group, Professor Catherine O’Connor, pro vice chancellor at Leeds Trinity University, Katrina Ritchie, head of people and culture at Gripple and Andy Sykes, plant director at Siemens Gamesa.
Offering the university perspective, O’Connor said: “We talk to businesses all the time about what they’re looking for and feed that back into how we educate our students.
“Degree level education is meant to be a bridge between school and the world of work – not a bubble.
“Over the last few years we’ve had to open minds to a changing world of work. Where schools narrow down thinking, we have to open that up again.
“We need to encourage a willingness to learn new things. And it’s important to give students lots of opportunities where they can explore and consider how they will contribute once they leave university.”
Sykes said his own company is working with further and higher education institutions and wants to nurture talent, pointing out that 10-15% of the staff in its office are interns or graduates.
He said that to help retain staff, the firm had been prepared to introduce flexible working patterns where possible.
He added: “We’re here to inspire because we need people to enter the manufacturing sector, people who have the desire to produce things and make things happen.”
Glover said: “We’re working hard with our managers to think about what talent they’ll need in the future.
“We have a programme where our managers volunteer in schools, because we don’t automatically assume that these skills will come through.
“But we don’t struggle to attract people because people do want to work in healthcare tech – it’s a growing sector.
“We do try to create the right environment for people, as they now have higher expectations of work. We try to create the right work-life balance.
“We’ve done a lot to foster a learning culture where people have a growth mentality. That’s key to making people want to stay at our business.”
Armstrong said school pupils often do not know what career paths to take, so must see a diverse range of ambassadors from the workforce to give them a better idea of what their options are.
She warned the growth of hybrid working – accelerated by the pandemic – is one of the biggest challenges businesses face in upskilling their employees.
She said: “It’s going to impact the skills gap because people learn by osmosis and you don’t get that when you’re not sat in the office and not seeing how other workers respond to things.
Ritchie said her own business had largely halted working from home.
She explained: “The main reason behind us bringing everyone back in was the fact our business is based on innovation. And people aren’t innovating when they’re sat at their computer at home and are not with other people.
“But we have also introduced more flexible working hours and said people can work from home if the task lends itself to that.”