By Beverly Rademacher
Copyright expressandstar
The Wolverhampton Business Breakfast, held at Molineux on Friday morning (September 26), was the flagship event of Wolverhampton Business Week, which has been running throughout this week, and the biggest and best attended breakfast event staged in its 12-year history.
The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern, Minister for Skills at Department of Education, and Minister for Women and Equalities at Department of Education, gave a keynote speech at the event, sponsored by the Careers and Enterprise Company, Wolverhampton College and McLaughlin & Harvey.
She spoke of the importance of government working in partnership with businesses, the focus on apprenticeships to help young people to learn and earn, the need to equip workers with digital and AI skills and how construction is a key focus to help achieve the government’s housebuilding targets.
She said: “Construction is absolutely key to this region. A huge number of skilled construction workers will be needed to build the 1.5 million homes we committed to deliver during this parliament, but we know the construction sector already has over 35,000 vacancies with half due to a shortage of candidates with the right skills, that’s the highest rate of any sector. There aren’t enough construction students and apprentices and we need to tackle that.
“It’s a really exciting and important moment for construction, an opportunity to grow the sector, to solve one of the country’s most persistent social problems and we’ll work with post-16 providers so you can make the most of this funding to meet local regional construction skills demands.”
She also highlighted engineering and defence as key sectors – pledging increased defence spending will help to deliver growth, jobs and skills.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, spoke about his growth plan to help the region thrive as part of a panel discussion – highlighting advance manufacturing, engineering, health technology, creative industries and digital, professional services and clean energy as the areas of focus that will enable young people to “get access to the skills that will change their lives”.
He highlighted a recent agreement signed with the BBC that will see the Corporation double its spending on production in the West Midlands.
Mr Parker also applauded Wolverhampton Council on overcoming challenges in the city in a “really ambitious way” and for the investment coming into Wolverhampton.
He added: “There’s a fantastic opportunity in the West Midlands now, and Wolverhampton and the Black Country is at the centre of and key to delivering our plan for change and prosperity for the whole region.”
Louise Fall, principal and chief executive at Wolverhampton College, also gave a talk at the event – sharing inspirational stories and highlighting how the City Learning Quarter, which is due to open in November, will transform the city and its fortunes.
Councillor Chris Burden, cabinet member for city development and skills, rounded things off – highlighting his passion for the city and the work going on to transform Wolverhampton including the City Learning Quarter which he described as “an absolutely inspirational setting” that he hopes will lead the people who learn in the city to become people who earn in the city “so we retain that talent and income”
He added: “It’s an amazingly exciting time to be in Wolverhampton.”
The event, hosted by broadcaster Amber Sandhu, was the penultimate event of Wolverhampton Business Week, which was due to end with a Friday evening networking event at Crazy Gin Ltd, delivered by Black Country Chamber of Commerce.
Other events throughout the week, which focussed on skills and economics growth, included an apprenticeships and skills policy breakfast, an apprenticeship drop-in event offering support to school leavers, a Connect Over Coffee event, hosted by the council’s Wolves at Work team, offering CV support and chance to meet local employers; plus masterclasses on AI and cyber resilience, an SME business expo, and a celebration of women in business.
