Plan revealed to double job creation and boost Gloucestershire economy by £400m
Experts believe Gloucestershire’s Net zero target is not an unsurmountable challenge but an opportunity to transform the jobs market and deliver a £400 million boost to the county’s economy.
Dear reader,
I’m assuming most of you are flaked out due to the heat, wondering how to stay cool, bored with scrolling and open to the idea of something worthwhile to read. If so, you concentrate on staying cool and read on.
Strategy documents of any meaning from councils can sometimes seemingly take an age to produce and feel of little consequence.
What caught our attention about the one below that our main story focuses on is that businesses have bought into it, education and training providers have bought into it and councillors are fronting up in public about it - all openly enthusiastic.
Not since the days of GFirst LEP, the now-defunct local enterprise partnership, has there been so much singing from the same hymn sheet.
Who cares? One delegate told me the challenge is that “there’s no money around at the moment” and partnership working is the way forward. With prospects for young people tough, our economy flatlining, how to magic something out of the hat then?
The main story below focuses on a a plan to do just that and more - a road map to a £400m boost to the county’s economy: it outlines a strategy that could double the number of jobs in what we now call the green skills sector, and put Gloucestershire on a pedestal.
Which is why we’ve dedicated so much time to the report. Have a great weekend.
Best regards,
Editor | 07956 926061 | LinkedIn: Andrew Merrell | andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk
A festival with a difference
Gloucestershire is famous for its festivals. Fighting for a place on the busy early summer calendar and fast-approaching is a music festival on a Five Valleys hilltop serious only about having a good time. Think music festival crossed with a mad village fete; think small British festival at its very best with that odd, an edgy mix of music, good food and family vibes, dedicated to providing one thing – good times. We’re here to tell you there are tickets left.
Headlining this year’s festival are Heather Small, Tinchy Stryder, Chesney Hawkes, BBC Radio 1’s Charlie Hedges, Dick & Dom and Discolicious featuring Woody Cook, alongside local favourites Casual 6. This is Chalfest also showcases 16-year-old Ambereye, making her festival debut after growing up attending Chalfest every year since the very first festival.
Five stages will be packed with entertainment, with 15-plus street food vendors, six bars serving everything from Clavell & Hind beers, Westons Cider and Woodchester Valley wines to handcrafted cocktails from Uncommon Distillery, plus a lively Comedy Tent and the much-loved KidsZone. Due to take place on 16 and 17 of July at France Lynch Pleasure Grounds, Chalford Hill, Stroud. Tickets here.
Plan revealed to double job creation and boost Gloucestershire economy by £400m
Experts believe Gloucestershire’s Net zero target is not an unsurmountable challenge but an opportunity to transform the jobs market and deliver a £400 million boost to the county’s economy.
Businesspeople, academics, councillors, college and university leadership teams and assorted experts gathered at the University of Gloucestershire on Wednesday to hear how the county’s net zero commitment has the potential to transform its economic fortunes too.
This was the Gloucestershire Green Skills Conference and the roadmap that had everybody talking is the Gloucestershire Green Skills Strategy, a document outlining how the county’s legal commitment to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 can become an economic catalyst.
It’s a catalyst, we are told, that could double job opportunities in the green skills market – with particular emphasis on construction, position the county as a leader in the sector, and generate an incredible £400 million boost to its economy.
Those who wrote the report and the businesses and academics on board all believe it’s possible, and they were there to front up and to explain why and what the challenges are, and the mood was upbeat.
Councillor Linda Cohen, who opened the conference and officially launched the strategy document, said: “Today we’re all taking another important step to working together and having the conversations that will help us to meet these challenges.
“We must have an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach we cannot wait for government or permissions, we have the talent, the expertise and the resources here in Gloucestershire, the starting bell has sounded, we will be the leading green skills county.”
A major part of piece of the jigsaw required to make Gloucestershire the “leading green skills county”, the buy-in not just from colleges, training providers and universities, was demonstrated by the presence of representatives from Gloucestershire College, SGS College, Cirencester College, the Royal Agricultural University and Hartpury University and Hartpury College.
Their expertise in food, farming, agritech, construction and even digital skills, all key to the strategy working. All areas which are a focus of its plan.
Pieces of that jigsaw yet to be fashioned were also discussed, importantly the need to change our mindset about so many things – from educating all ages about the opportunities in the county, turning people on to construction and apprenticeships and the incredible careers that direction could lead to, through to better careers advice and a campaign to reach primary school age learners to spread the messages to them too.
Dr Katerina Kantartzis, an associate professor of health and wellbeing, and deputy head of the school of education, health and science at the University of Gloucestershire, said: “Achieving Net Zero will not happen through tech alone. It will happen through people.
“They (people) will retrofit our homes, transform our agriculture, meeting challenges we don’t even know about yet.
“Many of the challenges we face are global, but the solutions begin locally.”
