New employability partnership set to support local businesses in County Durham

Hundreds of residents across County Durham will be helped to find work through a new regional employability partnership. Durham Employment Connections (DEC) has formed to generate more collaborative working across employment and skills services.

DEC will support the local business community by addressing labour and skills shortages and supporting local residents into roles. DEC is a partnership between Employability Durham, Business Durham, Durham Works and regional housing associations Livin, believe housing and Karbon Homes.

Suzanne Jobson, Foundations for Life manager at Karbon Homes, which is the overall lead deliverer of the project, said: “We are delighted to be launching this fantastic and vital employability partnership. Currently businesses are struggling to find suitable candidates for their job opportunities, with a lack of candidates and insufficient skills both being prevalent.

“DEC will create a link between employability networks and the local business network, helping them to gain a better understanding of the needs of the sector and raising awareness of the variety of employability support available in the community.

“With this we will develop the skills of local residents to help them become job ready and meet the recruitment needs of local businesses.”

Funded by Durham County Council’s Area Action Partnership, DEC has already set up an engaged and active ‘Durham Employability Forum’ bringing together over 40 employment and skills organisations from across the county focusing on key themes such as the cost of living crisis, women in the workplace, labour shortages in key industries and more.

DEC will also be organising and supporting local job fairs and events across the county; focusing on the local needs of businesses and residents. This coordinated activity kicked off with their first event in Bishop Auckland in late June, hosted by Livin Housing.

Helen Johnson, Livin Futures manager, added: “We are committed to supporting our tenants and customers in work and training and were delighted to see over 300 in attendance at this event. Working in a partnership such as this means we can widen the opportunities available for those in our communities.

“We’ll work together to begin contacting anyone who registered on the day to offer support and work training to our communities and tenants”

More events are planned throughout the summer and autumn, including business breakfast events, ‘spotlights on’ sector themes for forums and targeted recruitment events.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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