Rochdale needs skills boost

Too many local people don't have the skills or qualifications needed by employers and find it hard to get a job, according to an inspection report published today (Wednesday 9 December) by the Audit Commission.

The report states that initiatives to help people get a job or improve skills are making a difference for some residents, but the support is not helping as many people as it could.

The report marks work to raise skills levels and reduce unemployment with a ‘red flag’ highlighting that local organisations need to focus extra efforts in this area.

However, the body responsible for developing the Greater Manchester approach has praised Rochdale borough’s work to raise skill levels locally. Cecil Edey, Head of Skills for the Commission for the New Economy said: “Rochdale’s approach has been an exemplar to other Greater Manchester areas in the way that it has led the promotion and delivery of programmes to support skills and jobs advice in its borough, and is the local area that the Commission would hold up as a good practice model to follow.”

Craig McAteer, Managing Director of Link4Life and Vice Chairman of the Pride Partnership, the borough’s Local Strategic Partnership, said: “The partnership is committed to raising skill levels and reducing unemployment in the borough.

“Plans are already in place to invest in education and training for local people, and to create new opportunities for employment. We will be reviewing these plans to see what new approaches we can introduce and how we can speed up the pace of existing initiatives.”

Other key findings of the area assessment for the Rochdale borough:

• Local people are getting healthier, although the pace of improvements is often slow and poor health still affects far too many people in Rochdale.
• The amount of litter on the streets has halved, parks have improved to a high standard, and waste recycling rates have increased.
• Children and young people are doing well at school
• Support to adopt healthy lifestyles is good, although obesity levels need further attention and more than one in four children live in poverty.
• Rochdale is becoming a safer place. A robust action plan is in place to address serious and violent crime, which fell in the last quarter.
• The borough is well-placed to secure jobs and future prosperity – with well-located industrial, commercial and retail sites and improved transport connections.