Hot on the heels of being Highly Commended in the Plymouth Live Business Awards for Innovation, the Skills Launchpad Plymouth team are celebrating again, after being recognised as Finalists for the Innovation Award, in the Western Morning News Business Awards 2022.
Sponsored by Openreach, the innovation category celebrates new ideas, processes, products, services, technologies and applications that have had an impact on an organisation's success over the past 12 months.
Skills Launchpad Plymouth was originally launched as the city’s new one-stop-shop for skills, training, education, careers and jobs, in response to Plymouth’s Covid-19 economic recovery plan. Key partners came together to develop a transformational new Skills service, initially as a virtual resource www.skillslaunchpadplym.co.uk
Led by Plymouth City Council, in collaboration with Department for Work and Pensions, this virtual resource then, within the constraints of Covid-19 restrictions, developed into a physical Skills service.
Today, supported in-kind by Barclays Plymouth, Skills Launchpad Plymouth is home to both the Youth Hub and Adult Hub, providing 1:1 face to face appointments or drop-in support for everyone (claimants and non-claimants), as well as a range of activities which are delivered each week. These activities include drop-in Job Shops for help to join the construction industry, and health and care sectors, ‘Military Tuesdays’ to support our Armed Forces community, and ‘Find your Future’, offering tailored support specifically for young people not in employment, education or training.
Emma Hewitt, Skills Lead at Plymouth City Council said: “We are delighted that Skills Launchpad Plymouth has received this regional recognition, and is a Finalist for the Innovation Award in the prestigious Western Morning News Business Awards 2022. This recognition is timely to celebrate the introduction and successful impact of ‘Skills Launchpad Plymouth’ – the transformational, holistic one-stop-shop skills service, recognised nationally as leading innovation and best in practice through its city-wide, inclusive approach. We are proud that through working in successful partnerships, in alignment with Department for Work and Pensions, and ‘joining the dots’ for the first time across the public, private and voluntary sectors, we can evidence demonstrable impact in connecting local people with skills, training, education, careers and jobs during the first 12 months of physical Skills Launchpad Plymouth delivery.”
