Diversity ‘the key to success’
BUSINESS BOSS SAYS A STORY IS CRUCIAL FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH
DIVERSITY is the key to Leicester’s success as a city, a leading business expert says.
Tony Danker, director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said what powered growth in a city’s economy was a story – and in Leicester, that story was diversity.
Speaking at De Montfort University, he said: “If you look at the cities we consider successes – Manchester, Birmingham – there’s always a story.
“In Humber, they have identified that they could be the best place in the entire world for renewable energy.
“In Leicester, diversity has to be part of the story.”
Mr Danker was speaking as part of a roundtable discussion with a collection of business experts from the university and city.
He praised university schemes which have helped improve workforce diversity in the city.
Leicester’s Future Leaders, a project, supported by the Office for Students, aims to increase the progression of black, Asian and minority ethnic graduates into high-skilled graduate jobs in Leicester.
The Leicester 1,000 project, which is working to connect 1,000 graduates with roles in the city and county over the next three years.
Mr Danker said: “The programmes you’re doing here are spot on; they’re golden. There’s a proactive energy for working with businesses here at DMU which we are very proud of”
He said the one thing employers he had spoken to wanted was “workready graduates”.
Mary de Wind, a journalism graduate, who was part of Leicester’s Future Leaders, said the things she learned as part of the programme had directly helped her find a job as a social media manager.
She said: “It was there when I was putting my CV together and there when I was in interviews.
“When I was at school I was told I would never get five GCSEs but here
I am with a whole degree and a job I love. That’s really down to the Leicester Future Leaders project.”
Mr Danker argued that for a city’s economy to grow, it needed three things: a story, which in Leicester he said could be its diversity.
Then strong political leadership and anchor institutions to help deliver the training.
He said: “The next 18 months is the window. Employers are desperate to find talent.
“Microbusinesses will have lost people to the great resignation and to people finding a new work-life balance.
“Successful places are very hard to design. It’s very hard for anyone in Westminster to decide what kind of place Leicester would be.
“So get behind the success. Don’t try to solve everything that isn’t working. Instead focus on what your success is and put all your energy behind it.”