Employment Access Team: success stories

We work with employers and developers to understand their recruitment requirements, then find the right skilled unemployed people, or train people to get them ‘fit for the job’. This could be offered as part of a wholly managed recruitment campaign.

As part of the council, we are in a unique position to know when certain construction jobs may be available, as we get to know what developers will be building over the coming months as part of the planning application process. We often make it a legal requirement linked to planning permission that developers work with us to fill vacancies when building in the city.

Where we are directly involved in buying in the services of the construction industry, we can have even greater influence over who is employed to work on a particular project. This allows us to help construction workers to find continuous employment, and promote opportunities to local people.

We do this through the Procurement Policy Framework for Jobs and Skills, and our Building Jobs in Birmingham strategy, and are trying to introduce a similar policy through the new Birmingham Development Plan.