A Careers Hub that brings together Liverpool city region employers with Liverpool city region schools and colleges secures extra £500,000. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool City Region Careers Hub has secured an extra £500,000 funding from a Government agency to continue its work.

Launched in 2018, the Careers Hub works with all 137 secondary schools and colleges across the region. It supports them to better engage with employers, link curriculum learning to careers, and enable young people to gain experience of the workplace.

This is delivered through initiatives such as Give an Hour, Creating Careers in the Curriculum, and Let’s Explore.

Now the Combined Authority has approved £500,000 in additional funding from The Careers & Enterprise Company. This is the national body for careers education in England and was set up by the Government in 2015.

Gill Walsh, Careers Hub lead at Growth Platform, the city region’s economic development agency, said: “Our ambition is to inspire our future workforce.

“We do this by bringing together and working with more than 300 business volunteers to empower our young people to make informed decisions about the world of work.

“It is this business engagement that is so vital for our young people. By highlighting the wide range of employment opportunities available across our city region we can make sure they are given the opportunity to make informed choices about their future.

“Importantly, the Careers Hub also enables businesses to raise awareness of the skills and attitudes that they require from their future workforce.”

Supporting the work of the Careers Hub are what is called ‘cornerstone employers’. They are large and small businesses that invest time in and resources to support local schools and colleges, alongside Enterprise Advisers and Enterprise Coordinators.

The Careers Hub operates in partnership with seven organisations, including All About STEM, Career Connect, Elevate EBP, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Shaping Futures, St Helens Chamber and Wirral Council.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram added: “Thriving local businesses are the backbone of our economy and – for our region to flourish – we need them to succeed.

“But for too long, too many people in our area have been held back from fulfilling their potential, not by a lack of talent, but by a lack of opportunity and joined-up thinking.

“Our Careers Hub is helping to put that right by joining the dots between education and businesses in our region. This further funding means that they can continue to help even more of our young people access the thousands of jobs and training opportunities we’re creating for them.”