City Supports Emerging Young Talent Amidst The ‘Birmingham Boom’

 

At a time when Birmingham is enjoying record numbers of visitors, mass job creation, and large focus on infrastructure, it seems that the city is ever-increasingly being recognised as the place to be.

Naturally with greater investment comes greater opportunities and as more and more positions open up, it is Birmingham’s budding entrepreneurs that are seeing the benefit.

The Birmingham Boom is undeniably underway: the city now boasts the largest concentration of businesses outside of London and has been declared by Site Selection magazine the best place in the UK and the second best in Western Europe for businesses to invest.

With companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and SCC relocating to the city, it is evident that investors are increasingly considering alternatives to London.

One such company is Crave & Lamb, who work with clients such as JustFab, Fabletics, Coral, BoyleSports, Arena Racing Company and The Camping and Caravanning Club. Based in the capital, the award-winning full service marketing and creative agency recently set up an additional office in Birmingham’s Two Snow Hill.

Speaking about Crave & Lamb’s decision to open up in Birmingham, Media Strategy Director John Keane said,

“Choosing Birmingham as our next location was a no brainer as the figures speak for themselves: 75% of Birmingham’s businesses are expecting to see growth by 2016 and we want to be a part of that. This city is growing at breakneck speed and it is so exciting to be able to both experience and contribute to that as a business.”

Undoubtedly, one reason for Birmingham’s success is its young and diverse population. The city has learnt how to use and not lose its talent, with under-25s making up 40% of the population.

Part of this is due to Birmingham’s pioneering stance in how they nurture young talent. Businesses are increasingly advocating apprenticeships as an alternative route into work, including in the highly competitive sector of the creative industries.

Many young people are taking up apprenticeships before they go to university, in order to gain that all-important work experience that employers are looking for and to begin networking with people in the creative industries.

Local learning provider, Creative Alliance is the largest provider of creative apprenticeships in the Midlands, and has seen immense growth over the last 3 years. There are more young people in creative, digital and marketing apprenticeships in Birmingham than anywhere else outside London.

This national award winning social enterprise is marking its 100th apprentice of 2015 with the recruitment of Amber Townsend to her illustrious position with Crave & Lamb.

Creative Alliance has now placed two apprentices with Crave & Lamb, after working alongside IPA’s Creative Pioneers national programme. Creative Alliance has ties with several such nationwide initiatives, including their collaboration with the BBC on their Make It Digital campaign.

The BBC initiative aims to get the UK excited about digital creativity. One of the strands in the Make It Digital traineeships. Unemployed young people are encouraged to learn new skills in all areas of digital media, before being placed in a work environment with a company suited to them. Creative Alliance was chosen as the company to pilot the national initiative.

The programme has yielded superb results, with 80% of young people progressing into training or employment within 12 weeks of completing the course. This includes Shannon who finishes the BBC Traineeship this month and starts her apprenticeship in January.

The progression from apprenticeship into full time employment is equally impressive. 80% of young people who complete their apprenticeship move into full-time employment and 15% move directly onto Higher Education.

Noel Dunne, Director of Creative Alliance said,

“Birmingham is an example to the rest of the UK, in terms of showing that the future of our economy lies within our young people. As a nation, we need to unlock this potential and help it to grow and thrive.

I strongly believe that Birmingham is a pioneer in this field and I’m so pleased that the rest of the country is starting to take notice.”

Source: //businessbirmingham.com/media-hub/latest-news/city-supports-emerging-young-talent-amidst-the-birmingham-boom/