Partners across Cambridge are joining forces to develop a long-term solution to the significant talent gaps stifling growth in our life sciences and technology sectors. Anglia Ruskin University – which is one of the largest providers of degree apprenticeships in the country – led a year-long study into the problem by speaking to more than 200 life sciences, technology, health and education organisations across the city. Their research found concerning gaps in every corner of the city’s economic machine, from AI and robotics experts, genomic data analysts and lab scientists, to HR professionals, porters, sales staff, English language teachers, security guards, nurses, doctors and caterers. Now work has begun to find a local, long-term, collaborative solution to an issue that risks choking economic growth and scientific discovery.
That solution is the Cambridge ‘Opportunities Hub’, a unique programme to first analyse employment data in detail to identify the skills gaps that are holding organisations back, and then work with local partners to design the outreach programmes, training schemes and educational courses that will provide a pipeline of talent to fill those gaps.
If fully-funded, the Opportunities Hub will comprise three parts:
Part one: regular intelligence gathering
To solve a problem, you need to know exactly what you are dealing with. Building on the study led by Anglia Ruskin University, the crucial first step will be the regular gathering of data to identify areas where supply is failing to meet current and future demand. A small team will be needed to maintain, process and analyse this data before making
recommendations for strategic interventions, from new degree apprenticeship courses to retraining opportunities and outreach programmes. The team would also produce a quarterly skills market ‘review’ for partners, and take on bespoke research projects to identify needs at a more granular level.
Part two: an online marketplace (the largest section)
For the user, the Opportunities Hub will be a web-based vacancy list open to the public and linked to or integrated with the existing Cambridge Network Recruitment Gateway. Yet as well as a comprehensive list of all the courses, apprenticeships and training and job opportunities available, it would also offer personalised advice to individuals and employers, providing a place where clients can have detailed conversations with members of staff on the specific skills challenges they face, and how they might resolve them. That same team would also offer advice to individuals on how to upskill or retrain for knowledge-intensive sectors, linking them with the right training opportunities.
Part three: linking companies to experienced mentors
The Opportunity Hub’s mentorship programme is designed to support what are known as ‘gazelle’ companies, in other words companies with the potential for very rapid, global expansion, by mobilising the army leaders who have gone through the demanding process of scaling-up and commercialising their own business, and have the scars to prove it. Fast-growing companies will be able to access specialists on a fractional, part-time basis and across a range of skills, from finance, human resources and marketing to engaging with industry, accessing capital and communications. A feasibility study, funded by Cambridge City Council, has built a strong foundation outlining how the programme could be expanded to become comprehensive and self-sustaining.
Turning the vision into reality
Initially, further seed-funding to employ an Operations Manager would enable us to grow the idea and secure more funding.
Ultimately, £8mn could build and run a full-scale Opportunities Hub for the life sciences and technology sectors in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area for the next 6 years. After which, if not before, it will be self-funding with participant and commercial partners. To prove the concept and to attract further investment, a pilot scheme has been launched to create the region’s first flexible apprenticeship agency helping small businesses with the risks and red tape of taking on an apprentice. The Cambridge City Council has also funded a feasibility study into the mentorship programme, and Cambridge University Health Partners has recently secured funding from the Gatsby Foundation to help tackle a worrying shortage of technicians across the city.
By 2035 the Opportunities Hub aims to create 35,000 net new direct jobs and 2,000 new apprenticeships in the health and life sciences ecosystem, with another 25,000 jobs in the wider innovation ecosystem. By supporting all roles, from entry-level, mid-career and later-stage development, through facilitating education placements, apprenticeships, upskilling and global business leader mentorship, the Hub will support the industry’s future by mentoring 1,000 entrepreneurs and helping at least 500 businesses to grow.
More about our work so far…..
Apprenticeships
Cambridge University Health Partners has partnered with a specialist agency called TrAC, to pilot the region’s first flexi-apprenticeship agency for life sciences, starting at the Babraham Research Campus. Flexible apprenticeships make it much easier and less risky for small and medium businesses with limited resources to take on an apprentice, because the agency helps shoulder the risks and red tape. If a small company has insufficient funds, the agency also helps the apprentice to find a new placement. Babraham Research Campus is home to 60 small companies capable of supporting several flexible apprenticeships. The agency has the capacity to service all the knowledge-intensive sectors long term, and now needs the companies to take the leap and employ apprentices.
Technicians
The Opportunities Hub has identified a worrying shortage of technicians, with a dearth of young people in-training to replace those heading for retirement. For example, there has been a 20 per cent rise in laboratory technician roles over the past decade, and supply simply isn’t matching that demand.
To tackle this, Cambridge has recently secured funding from the Gatsby Foundation to support engagement with employers and local/regional education providers, to increase the numbers of T-level placements and technician apprenticeships at levels 3,4,5 across the Cambridge cluster.
Cambridge University Health Partners is also working with Anglia Ruskin University and West Suffolk College to establish a level 3 Laboratory Technician apprenticeship in the Cambridge area. This will be hosted by Anglia Ruskin University and delivered by West Suffolk College, a well-established provider of the level 3 standard.
So, in classic Cambridge fashion we have analysed the problem in detail, then joined forces across government, academia, industry and education to develop a joint, long-term solution. The pilot schemes and feasibility studies have shown how our Opportunities Hub can work. We now need the funding to make it a scaled-up, self-sustaining reality.