Speakers, included esp Chair and emda Chief Executive Jeff Moore; esp Director Sarah Hakeney, Karen Foulds, the East Midlands Director of Jobcentre Plus; Stuart Tomlinson, Director of Strategy at Bolsover District Council and Michelle Dawson, Community Manager for Hammerson, the developer of the £250 million Highcross shopping and leisure project in Leicester which opens this September.
The event was chaired by Richard Beamish, esp Executive Group member, who said: “We had a great turnout at the meeting. And the key to success is partnership, and working together, and the esp is a real opportunity for us to do that.”
esp – the region’s Employment, Skills and Productivity Partnership – held its second annual public meeting to update colleagues from the public, private and third sectors on its work. The event was an opportunity to learn about the progress the esp partners have made to address one of the key regional priorities; tackling worklessness and economic exclusion in the East Midlands.
The meeting was also an opportunity to gauge what the body’s strategy should be to further achieve its vision of ‘more people into better jobs in better businesses’.
More than 150 people from across the East Midlands attended the event in Nottingham. As well as listening to speakers including Phil Hope MP, Minister for the East Midlands, the delegates were asked to contribute suggestions, questions and answers which are now available on the website.
Phil Hope, giving a ‘state of the region’ address, said: “We have made enormous strides in creating new jobs and attracting inward investment to the region, but to meet the future with confidence we must both enhance the skills we bring to our jobs, and help those without work to find jobs.”
