southtyneside.info
Jobs and Enterprise
Updated May 2008
This theme sets out objectives for helping people into jobs and encouraging enterprise.
Vision
South Tyneside is a centre for enterprise and innovation where new and existing businesses can realise their potential and people can find jobs.
Businesses will grow because of an adaptable, highly skilled workforce and world-class premises.
South Tyneside will be a place where wealth creation goes hand in hand with helping people from disadvantaged groups to achieve their ambitions.
Policy story
Jobs and enterprise are crucial to a better South Tyneside. We still have much to do but we are attracting new and existing businesses, delivering world-class premises and developing a more skilled workforce to strengthen our economy.
Helping more people into jobs not only has an impact on our employment rate, but it will have knock on effects across all of our priority themes.
We know that being in work is good for mental and emotional health, people in work are more likely to take part in active society, children in families that work are less likely to live in poverty and more likely to succeed in their own lives.
We are playing an active part in the Tyne Wear City Region and are working closely with both the City Region Employment Consortium and City Region Multi Area Agreement. These two opportunities will help link residents in South Tyneside who are not in work, with job opportunities all across the City Region.
Priority objectives and performance
We have a clear and focused set of objectives that we need to achieve over the long term to deliver our vision.
We have identified top priorities for our Jobs and Enterprise partnership - our priority objectives.
These are the things on which we believe we can make the biggest and most sustainable impact and these are the things we will focus on improving first.
These are the priority objectives that have been set for 2008-20011 (our top ten outcomes are in bold):
- Increasing the employment rate
- Reducing the gaps in employment and benefit claimant rates between the worst performing neighbourhoods and national average
- Increasing proportion of adults with level 3 qualifications
- Increasing the number of business start up and survivals and people who are self employed
Key information
From 1997 – 2005 an extra 11.6% of people were in employment in the UK, 13.1% in the North East but only 2% in South Tyneside. The employment rate is currently 66.9% compared to 71.4% in the region and 74.3% nationally (Annual Population Survey – September 07 employment rate).
Although we are continually diversifying our economy, we still have only 5.7% of people self-employed compared to 9.2% nationally.
The benefits of our partnership working are real. In April 2008 we will have completed our two-year £6.4m “Supporting People into Work” programme. A comprehensive programme of intervention has been developed and delivered with the South Tyneside Enterprise Partnership, including Job Centre Plus to address key unemployment issues in the Borough.
The number of people claiming job seekers allowance in South Tyneside was the lowest ever in September 2007, at 3.9%, down from 4.4% in 2006. This was the biggest percentage fall in Tyne and Wear (Nomis Claimant count figures).
The working age population in South Tyneside with a level 3 qualification rose from 62.5% in 2005 to 63.9% in 2006. The LSC currently fund a range of programmes to increase those qualified to level 3. Programmes include the level 3 entitlement allowing any individual aged 19-25 to study for a first level 3 qualification without fees. We also provide Train to Gain and apprenticeship programmes through the South Tyneside Council and South Tyneside College.
Next update due: April 2009