Sports field with goal posts and houses in the distance

Employer Boards

Embedding Employer Voice

Greater Manchester aims to be the UK's first integrated technical city-region.

It will lead the way for technical education transformation by providing advanced and higher technical skills reflective of labour market need.

GMCA, in co-ordination with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, has formed a new board representing a powerhouse of businesses committed to sharing sector insight with a view to changing the local skills system, ensuring the continued growth of Greater Manchester.

Business leaders from seven key sectors (gateways) have been appointed following an application process to form the Employer Integration Board (EIB), who will work with core partners using key insights to further strengthen GM's Local Skills Improvement Plan and galvanise industry.

They are:

  1. Factory International and WPP - Creative, Culture & Sport
  2. Booking.com and Cloud Imperium Games - Digital & Technology
  3. J Murphy & Sons and Siemens Energy Ltd - Construction & Green Economy
  4. EY and BNY Mellon - Financial & Professional
  5. NHS GM and Persona Care Support - Health & Social Care
  6. Nexperia and Miliken & Co - Manufacturing & Engineering
  7. Manchester Metropolitan University - Education & Early Years

Clive Memmott OBE, Chief Executive of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, will co-chair the new board with Lou Cordwell, who is also chair of Greater Manchester’s Business Board (GM LEP).

Board members will support the agenda through providing strategic senior input and expertise, verification of intelligence and access to wider networks and supply chains. This will determine the approach with the business community to create clear lines of sight to alternative employment pathways. 

The Board will be informed by an Employer Supporter Action Network made up of 60+ organisations, who all advocate for Greater Manchester’s ambitions to become the UK's first technical education city-region and galvanise industry to commit to action.

A proposed model of how Greater Manchester will achieve its ambition is below, with change being driven by the Employer Integration Board through the Industry Supporters Action Network and out to wider sector bodies and the business community at large:

Image showing how the model for change in the technical education city region moves out from the Employer Integration Board, through the Employer Supporters Action Network, to Sector Bodies and then the Wider Business Community.

In the first instance, the EIB's work will focus around convening sector bodies, peers, and other employers around 4 aims:

  1. Raise the number of placements for T-levels and apprenticeships.
  2. Support curriculum relevance based on a GM agreed view of skills challenges in the Gateway areas – potentially leading to provision development.
  3. Spearhead the advocacy of the benefits of technical skills and qualifications as a solution to the skills challenges.
  4. Articulate what are the barriers preventing this growth and provision change, creating recommendations for GM’s Devolution Board (JOB).

 

For more information about the appointment of the Employer Integration Board, please read this press release (internal webpage)