Corridor Manchester - Workforce
Nature and structure of the labour force, demographics
Manchester offers a diverse labour pool thanks to a high number of international students and foreign nationals. Businesses with a multinational interest benefit from extensive multilingual skills at a realistic cost.
Manchester`s labour force covers a wide range of different industries including ICT and digital media and creatives, aviation, financial and professional services and bio-science and medical devices.
Education and Qualification
Manchester`s labour force is strongly skilled in UK terms with the majority qualified to NVQ level 2 and above.
Manchester`s Universities guarantee highly educated staff at any time with over 100,000 students. An additional 18 universities and HE institutions are within an hour`s drive of the city, increasing the number of opportunities for recruitment.
Manchester Business School was ranked 22nd in the world by FT and its MBA programme rated top ten in non-US schools by Forbes, strengthening Manchester`s position as a world class educational and professional centre of excellence (MIDAS, www.investinmanchester.com, 2009).
The Learning Skills Council is in charge of the planning and funding of high quality education and training for young people and adults. By 2010 it aims to provide young people and adults with knowledge and skills that match the best on the world to make it a truly competitive global workforce.
Availability
Greater Manchester offers a high quality labour force of 5.2 million people within an hour`s commute of the city centre.
A multi-modal transport infrastructure allows staff to be flexible and mobile and combined with excellent standards of living and affordable housing, keeps the workforce guarantees workforce retention and satisfaction.
Training and Recruitment Initiatives
Greater Manchester provides a range of industry-specialised recruitment agencies offering businesses the opportunity to outsource their recruitment and benefit from valuable support and advice from local job centres and further education colleges.
Corridor Manchester has several projects targeting people living in the areas closest to the Corridor: Aspire offers vacancies at the Universities and Pathfinder who works in partnership with private sector company A4e provides personal advice for people helping them into work or pointing them to relevant training or education.
Businesses operating in Manchester also benefit from part-funding through the city region`s Professional Apprenticeship Scheme, ensuring that employers are able to retain the staff they recruit and train.
Manchester`s universities each offer their own careers service providing quality recruitment solutions to businesses in the area. The University of Manchester`s service is has been voted the best in the UK for the past 5 years by employers.
