“The link between people, place and prosperity has never been so talked about and acted upon as in the last few years, particularly with the UK Shared Prosperity Fund promising to “invest in three local priorities: communities and place, support for local businesses and people and skills”. Yet the policy landscape – both locally and nationally – has typically focussed on lower-level skills training and labour force utilisation”
In this article, Gabi Binnie (Head of Programmes and Research at Gradconsult) explores how other regions across the UK have invested to deliver regional employment initiatives focussed on their graduates and questions if the time has come for the West Midlands to do more.
(December 2024)
The link between people, place and prosperity has never been so talked about and acted upon as in the last few years, particularly with the UK Shared Prosperity Fund promising to “invest in three local priorities: communities and place, support for local businesses and people and skills”. Yet the policy landscape – both locally and nationally – has typically focussed on lower-level skills training and labour force utilisation. Morally, this makes sense. Of course, we must prioritise those in our society that need most support and that are further away from success in the labour market. But economically, these projects require significant resource to support individuals with complex needs that present a multitude of barriers to labour market entry. The dividends of these projects can be massive for individuals but for regions, any economic benefits can take a substantial amount of time to realise, if ever. We must also prioritise investing in optimising the utilisation of graduate talent to drive business growth and catalyse the economic growth that new Government has made central to their mission.
Approximately a third of 18-year-olds from the West Midlands go on to higher education.[1] Over half of students from the West Midlands stay within the region for university, and 84% of these students stay in the West Midlands to start their graduate careers.[2] Like our young people more generally, recent graduates also experience barriers to entering the labour market in the region. They can struggle to align their field of study with local labour market demand, may lack the professional experience to bolster their CV, or suffer from a lack of confidence when presenting themselves to employers.
Our regional universities do exceptional work to develop the employability confidence and capital of graduates, with examples like the fabulous Graduate Re-Tune project partnership project between BCU, Aston University and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Higher-Level Skills Match project but in recent years the funding pots have reduced significantly following the loss of European funding pots for regional economic development.
Using funding to deliver regional employment initiatives focussed on graduates can have a significant and immediate economic benefit for the regional economy. The RISE project, for example, was a partnership between Sheffield City Council, The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University that was part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) since 2019. Between 2013 and 2022, the scheme supported more than 400 small and medium sized businesses in the Sheffield city region to recruit over 500 graduates. Since 2019 the project produced a return on investment of £19 for every £1 spent, it is estimated to produce a £22.3m net present value (NPV) over the next five years.
Regional initiatives that connect talented graduates to local businesses have other benefits, beyond economic value. The LCR Grad Scheme, part-funded by the European Social Fund and delivered by the careers and employability team at the University of Liverpool, was a first of its kind city-wide graduate scheme for the entire Liverpool City Region. The programme enabled local employers to access the graduate talent and skills to grow their business, while the graduates had access to a six-month development programme that helped them develop the skills and abilities to succeed in their new roles. An unexpected side effect of the graduate programme was the relationships that developed between graduates, catalysing new business opportunities between local SMEs and supporting the long-term retention of graduates in the region.
These regional projects do not have to focus on the recruitment of graduates into industry but can also seek to maximise how well utilised graduates are by businesses. Nottingham Trent University’s Innovation Community Lab (ICL) programme (also funded by the European Social Fund) aimed to develop the confidence, business acumen and leadership potential of graduates working in SMEs in the D2N2 region. Through the programme, graduates were supported to implement innovations in the business with a view to driving business growth and sustainability. The outcomes for this programme were impressive: 95 per cent of managers said ICL had a positive impact on the innovation culture of the organisation.
While delivering these types of European-funded projects has not always been without difficulty, these funding pots have enabled universities to deliver innovative, ambitious and collaborative regional projects. With the loss of European funding, all these projects were paused, some indefinitely. Yet the tide is beginning to change. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund has enabled the creation of new graduate-focussed programmes in smaller districts like Ashfield. In West Yorkshire, graduates have been able to access additional support to transition into the local labour market through the ‘Grad Skills’ programme, funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) through the Adult Skills & Training gainshare funding, under the Skills Connect banner. Other exciting new projects are emerging from Combined Authorities, funded by flexible pots that allow Mayors to achieve their ambitions around people, place and prosperity.
Many of our graduates will become our leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and policymakers of the future, and regional initiatives can genuinely unlock the potential of this population for economic and social benefit of the region.
We recognise that the importance of prioritising those in our society that need most support, but we must also invest in these higher-level schemes to grow SMEs, maximise the return of investment in higher education by the individual and the state and deliver economic development. Other regions are doing it successfully, is it time for the West Midlands to do more?
[1] Higher education student numbers, 10th October 2024
[2] HESA Graduate Outcomes 2021/22: Summary statistics – Graduate salaries and work locations, figure 15
This is a personal blog post. Any opinions, findings, and conclusion or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Centre for the New Midlands or any of our associated organisations/individuals.
ABOUT OUR AUTHOR:
As Head of Programmes and Research for Gradconsult, Gabi Binnie has a particular interest in delivering place-based employability projects that support regions to harness graduate talent for economic growth.
She has previously held roles in policy and research and is an advocate for utilising labour market information and research to inform policy. Her writing has been featured by The Guardian, the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) and Wonkhe. She is a member of the Advisory Board for Sheffield University Management School and holds an MSc in Occupational Psychology.