2013 sees the Norfolk Chamber launch its campaign to ‘Unlock the Potential of Norfolk’s Young People’ .
Caroline Williams CEO Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said:
“I have yet to come across a business that is not willing to be supportive in helping our young people to understand the world of work. However, with increasing economic pressures on the business community the Norfolk Chamber felt it important that the topic of young people and unlocking their potential stays in the forefront of everyone’s mind.
The idea of our theme is to find a variety of ways to profile the employment opportunities available within our businesses for our young people and to get the business community and young people to get to know each other better. It is essential that our young people do have a voice and we listen to them”
At all of the Norfolk Chamber’s 70+ events throughout 2013 young people will be invited to participate. Businesses are invited to bring their apprentices to networking events at a special rate, for them to see the business community in action and to participate in the discussions. At the Chamber’s annual MPs event this February the topic will be all about how the business community can help influence the support for our young people, and a number of them will be invited to take part in the round table discussions.
Norfolk Chamber members will be working with schools across Norfolk to help them to identify career opportunities available across all sectors. Young people form a crucial part of the business supply chain now and in the future.
Apprenticeships are increasingly being recognised as a tangible way for businesses to employ young people with the advantage of support from a training provider. The Norfolk Chamber has challenged its members to collectively employ 213 apprentices in 2013 and to share with others what worked and what did not work, in order to encourage more businesses to employ apprentices and get more young people employed.
Caroline Williams continued: ” Although only a small business ourselves, we employ two apprentices and although to start with additional resources is needed to get them up to speed, their enthusiasm and new ideas definitely makes up for it . Growing your own workforce has many advantages.
“We are very excited about this year’s theme as a greater involvement of young people in Norfolk’s business community can only make us all more successful”
