Examination of Witnesses (Questions 117-119)
17 SEPTEMBER 2003
RUSSELL GARD,
TERRY SCUOLER,
DR PETER
WHITE, TERRY
MORAN, AND
CHRISTINE HEATON
Q117 Chairman: Welcome to this session
of the Committee's inquiry into social cohesion. Can I invite
you to identify yourselves for the record?
Dr White: I am Peter White, Director
of Strategy at the North West Development Agency.
Mr Scuoler: My name is Terry Scuoler.
I am Managing Director of Ferranti Technologies. We have a major
business in the town.
Mr Gard: I am Russell Gard. I
am the Divisional Commercial Director of First; that is the bus
company, and I am the Chairman of Oldham United.
Mr Moran: Terry Moran, Director
of North West Region for Jobcentre Plus.
Ms Heaton: Christine Heaton, District
Manager of Jobcentre Plus.
Chairman: Thank you very much. We always
give witnesses the chance to say anything by way of introduction,
although we are usually happier if we go straight to questions.
Does anyone have a burning issue they want to tell us about before
we start? If not, we will go straight to questions.
Q118 Chris Mole: As you say in your
submission, the Chairman of the Oldham inquiry said that if he
could wave a magic want the one thing he would do would be to
give everyone in Oldham a job. What role are your organisations
playing in creating employment opportunities in Oldham and Burnley?
Dr White: The Development Agency
operates at two levels in a sense. We are a regional body responsible
for producing the regional economic strategy and trying to ensure
that conditions in the region as a whole are favourable for economic
growth. At the individual local authority level we work closely
with other partners through the Local Strategic Partnerships trying
to create conditions for that particular locality, so we have
a dual role, if you like, in the process.
Mr Scuoler: We have an electronics
company here in the town. We respond clearly to market stimuli.
Over the last 12-18 months I am delighted to say that we have
been in growth mode and we recruit where we can and that would
not only include Oldham but also the Greater Manchester area.
We are driven in the main by the competences we require, which
are highly skilled electronics technicians. If I say that with
some hesitancy, it is because I have to acknowledge that we struggle
at the moment to get those skills from all elements of the town
of Oldham.
Q119 Chairman: Is it worse in Oldham
than it is in other parts of the country where you recruit?
Mr Scuoler: Yes, indeed. We struggle
to get the key skills that we require in Oldham and it is not
uncommon for us to have to go wider afield. It is something we
would love to remedy, of course.
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