People

Economic inclusion is important to supporting a healthy and dynamic business base, improving the places for business and people to thrive and developing opportunities for people to create wealth and employment.

Economic Inclusion is the term used to describe policies, programmes and interventions targeted at groups of people or places which are not fully able to participate in economic life either as a consumer, producer or both.

It is not just about being in employment – people can be excluded from other elements of the economy such as access to financial services as a result of being in and out of employment on a regular basis.

In 2008, Advantage West Midlands established the West Midlands Economic Inclusion Panel, which brought together leaders from across the public, private and third sectors to identify and champion good practice in tackling worklessness and propose the means to fill crucial gaps in current employment and training provision.

In March 2010, the panel launched the West Midlands Procurement Framework for Jobs and Skills - PDF - 377kb - an award-winning set of guidelines to enable public and voluntary sector organisations to address worklessness by:

• Making access to jobs and skills a core requirement of procurement exercises from the outset

• Addressing the real and perceived legal barriers to the use of jobs and skills clauses in procurement exercises

• Providing advice and guidance to help embed a focus on jobs and skills throughout the procurement process - from setting strategic priorities to contract implementation and monitoring

• Sign-posting procurers and prospective contractors to the range of support and advice that can help both parties meet the jobs and skills requirements to be delivered.

In October 2010, the annual Civil Service Award for Equality in Procurement was given to the panel for its work in the field. The panel is now chaired and led by Birmingham City Council.

Reference Documents

West Midlands Procurement Framework for Jobs and Skills - PDF - 377kb

In the West Midlands there are 3.5 million people of working age and only 2.5 million jobs and it is forecast that over the next five years there will be a net loss of a further 38,200 jobs. Radical action to create jobs is needed not just to offset the forecast decline in employment but also to meet the current demands of the one million people without a job.

The West Midlands Statement of Skills Investment Priorities makes the case for investing in the right skills to create more and better jobs in the West Midlands as well as addressing the skills needs of the people already in work and supporting people without a job to gain the skills they need to become employed.

The statement says that urgent, radical, transformational change is needed to deliver:

• Skills that will support growth and help to create new jobs

• Skills that employers have already identified as being in short supply (circa 200,000 current skills gaps and shortages)

• Skills for the jobs that will become vacant as people move jobs or retire (circa 850,000)

Advantage West Midlands has also focused its own investment on a package of support aimed at raising demand for higher level skills in the areas of leadership, management, entrepreneurship and graduate level skills.

Working with universities and business organisations, these initiatives included Graduate Advantage, Your First Move, Grad Central and Student Placement for Entrepreneurs in Education SPEED WM 

Reference Documents 

West Midlands Statement of Skills Investment Priorities 2010-2011 - PDF - 1mb 

Equality and diversity is an underlying principle that cuts across all the economic development activities carried out by Advantage West Midlands and its partners in the region.

The Agency's committment to applying equality and diversity is set out in the West Midlands Economic Strategy, with a theme of ‘pursuing equality and reaping the benefits of diversity.'

To help focus Agency work in this area, an Equality and Diversity Action Plan was produced which is aimed at developing economic opportunities for all.

Reference Documents

Equality and Diversity Action Plan - PDF - 131kb

Equality and Diversity Policy - PDF - 155kb

The Third Sector plays a key role within the region by helping to improve the economic development of the West Midlands and meeting the aims and objectives of the West Midlands Economic Strategy.

The sector is diverse and includes a range of generic and specialist voluntary and community sector organisations; registered charities; large and small foundations; trusts; trade unions; not-for-profit trade associations; political organisations; co-operatives; social enterprises; private clubs; sports organisations; places of worship; and grant-making trusts.

Advantage West Midlands has worked hard over the last 11 years to put into place a range of support mechanisms, channels and projects to help support strategic engagement with the Third Sector including Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM),Social Enterprise West Midlands (SEWM) and West Midlands European Network (WMEN).

A key programme established by the Agency has been Routes to Opportunity (R2O). R20, the first programme of its kind in the country, was set up to increase the capacity of BME Third Sector organisations to bid for public sector contracts and successfully engaged over 500 organisations.