Sheffield: forging steel and embracing tech

This is the first in a series of reports the Jobs Foundation will be producing, based on different geographical regions, looking at jobs as a route out of poverty and business as a societal good. Sheffield is our exploration of a city; to follow will be an in-depth look at a town (Loughborough), a coastal community (Hartlepool) and a rural community (Pembrokeshire). These regional reports will all be launched over the next couple of months, leading up to a master report, one which will bring together all of the lessons learned across hundreds of interviews held in all of the different locations the report covers. This master report will come out in October. It will contain a major section on the policies that are important to businesses across the country - what needs to happen to allow companies and individuals in Britain to thrive, reaching their greatest potential.

The Sheffield report is the culmination of dozens and dozens of interviews held in the city over the past several months, with entrepreneurs, CEOs, community organisers, local politicians and jobseekers themselves. If they were a businessperson, I asked them about what their hopes and fears were about the business climate, how they hire and train staff, and generally ask them about their business. I wanted to try and understand what “best practice” might look like in terms of hiring, training and retaining staff. If I was interviewing a non-businessperson, I would ask them about their interactions with the business community and particularly any information they had to give me around jobs as the best route out of poverty. Thankfully, as this report demonstrates, the conversations were fruitful and the Jobs Foundation has a lot to communicate now on all of these fronts.

I was impressed both by the newer sectors of the economy, such as tech, and how developed they are in the city, but also how traditional sectors, like steel, have adapted to the 21st century. Often times, the old and the new dovetail nicely, with the tech firms finding older, more established companies in the city as clients, and the traditional sectors of the city’s economy using the tech at their disposal to remain competitive.

Of course, Sheffield has its share of socio-economic deprivation, which is why things detailed in the report, like the Ascend Programme, are so vital. Headed by Ben Woollard, the Ascend Programme works with some of the harder to employ individuals in the city and helps give them the basic skills they need to get into work - and then helping link them up with companies looking to hire.

I could go on here about all of the great things I discovered in Sheffield - but instead, I urge you to the report. We’d love to hear your thoughts about this first piece of Jobs Foundation research.

Thanks for reading,

Nick Tyrone
Senior Policy Adviser, Jobs Foundation