Earlier this week, the Government launched its new Industrial Strategy, designed to ‘increase innovation, develop skills, grow business and drive productivity in urban and rural places across the UK’. Dedicated investment has been pledged to drive growth across the UK, with an acknowledgement that London has had a very large slice of the cake, and that investment in transport, housing and digital infrastructure needs to be strategically distributed across the country to create extra economic growth and address equality of opportunity issues.
Educational standards, relevant skills development and progression routes into the right types of employment play critical roles in this agenda and, as a new and ambitious multi-academy trust, SSMAT is committed to playing its part in supporting the Industrial Strategy in the West Midlands region. ‘Relationship with the community’ is one of our five areas of strategic intent and major foci, within this strand, are on Information, Advice and Guidance for young people and on working with local employers to broker and develop support for members of the community looking to improve their employment prospects. Where members of the community are parents or other family members of SSMAT schools, these two strands are mutually supportive.
SSMAT staff are getting as involved as we can in local business networks, including the local Skills and Enterprise Board and the Chamber of Commerce, and aim to have some partnership initiatives in place later in the year. Any local businesses interested in working with us should contact Sharon Thorp, Trust Business Manager, for a chat about how we can work together for the benefit of the community and help to address business goals.