The critical mission of recruiting in Cumbria

When business leaders across the region, including NRL Director Rebecca Graves, came together for a round table with Britain's Energy Coast Business Cluster (BECBC), people, skills and employment were at the top of the agenda.

The outcome from the day helped in creating the BECBC’s latest white paper: Where energy meets business, which highlights the current and future challenges Cumbria’s industrial sectors face. It’s centred around Cumbria’s four nationally critical missions; Sellafield’s nuclear decommissioning and waste management, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s Geological Disposal Facility (GDF), Barrow’s submarine shipbuilding at BAE, and the Pioneer Park clean energy development at Moorside.

A common theme across all four missions, as Rebecca Graves points out, is people – and more crucially ensuring we have the skills and expertise in readiness.

“It was a privilege to join the round table event and support this important white paper, it truly highlights the scale of the recruitment challenge the region’s energy and defence sectors have. We know that we have a higher rate of residents heading towards retirement than you see nationally, and a growing skills shortage, so it will be crucial for businesses across the supply chain to collaborate and think differently.

More opportunities to join these sectors are needed, including those people looking to return to the workplace, as well as the younger generation who may be considering relocating to advance their careers. We’ve seen the benefits of retraining people first-hand working with our clients, as well as redeploying the wide-range of skills people hold when departing the Armed Forces. We’re also passionate about changing the workplace to make it more accessible to parents needing more flexibility to balance home and work life, and ensuring there are no social mobility barriers limiting residents from considering these sectors.”

Within the report key considerations also include how the region can attract back people who relocated for work in previous years, and how vital infrastructure such as transportation and housing will be to retain the future workforce.

If you’d like to receive a copy of the BECBC’s latest whitepaper then reach out to Rebecca at rgraves@nrl.co.uk

You can read the full February issue of in-Cumbria business magazine below.