Member Article

US delegation on economic tour of Liverpool city region

A delegation of American business and civic leaders have been in Liverpool City Region to learn and share best practice on regeneration and creating economic growth.

Hosted by the Employment and Skills Board of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the private sector-led delegation of six are from the Workforce Investment Board for South West Michigan (known as Kinexus), and are looking specifically at skills creation and job growth across the Liverpool City Region.

As part of this, the delegation visited Wirral based employer The Contact Company, where they found out more about the LEP led Skills for Growth Bank funding that is available to support employer led skills and training in the city region. They also visited Jaguar Land Rover to hear about how their best practice approach to workforce skills and training is at the heart of their recent and continuing success.

Their trip also included a visit to Academy One – the Skills Academy for Retail at Liverpool One, a meeting with local social enterprise leaders, presentations on The International Festival for Business (IFB) and a formal greeting from the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.

Todd Gustafson, Executive Director at Kinexus, said: “We were looking for a community experienced in transformation. Liverpool City Region is clearly it. We’ve been so impressed by the leadership, spirit of cooperation, shared vision and inspirational results achieved so far in the City Region. We hope to take these lessons back to help us transform Southwest Michigan”.

Asif Hamid, Chief Executive Officer at The Contact Company, said: “It is a great testament to how well we are all working locally on driving business growth in the Liverpool City Region that there is interest from as far afield as Michigan. They are facing a tremendous challenge in rebuilding their economy following such a difficult and deep recession and it was great to be able to learn from each other. We were pleased that The Contact Company and other employers were able to host them and share ideas and opportunities about delivering jobs, skills and growth for our respective communities”.

Their visit was organised by Inclusion US – who specialise in getting people skilled and into jobs – in liaison with the British Consulate for Chicago.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .