Speaking at Logistics UK’s second Digital Transformation in Logistics conference in Birmingham on Tuesday (22 October 2024), Helene Dearn OBE, Director of Employment, Skills, Health and Communities at the West Midlands Combined Authority, said: “One of the things I want us to think about is how we might build some of that passion in the young people of this region and wider communities across the UK to want to be part of your sector and to want to grow.”
Helping young people understand how food gets to their table or the important role logistics plays across the wider economy was vital to inspiring and attracting the next generation of talent, Dearn maintained.
Around 300,000 people in the West Midlands are employed in the logistics sector, estimated to be around 12% of all jobs in the region. This makes it a core part of the region’s economic growth plans.
“It's fair to say that not only to our region, but to central government, the growth agenda is critical,” Dearn said, “But I also see through the aspirations that our mayor has set, that skills underpin every part of our growth agenda.”
The West Midlands has double the rate of youth unemployment compared to many other parts of the country, and Richard Parker, the region’s recently elected Labour mayor, is keen to try and establish a much better pathway towards good jobs for young people.
“Our mayor has set youth and employment as his key priority and making sure that young people in this region have got pathways to work that are going to sustain them for life. It's a major task, it's a major system change, but it's one that as a region and politically we are absolutely committed to.”
Formerly a senior official at the Department for Work and Pensions, Dearn said the reason she had come to work more locally in the region was because she truly believed that devolution was the way to provide solutions, by working in partnership with experts to help the citizen really progress.
“Partnership is key to where we're going as a region and where we're going as a country with devolution,” she concluded, “so the more we can do together, the better outcomes I'm sure we will achieve for the citizen.”
The purpose of the day-long conference was to provide an opportunity for representatives from the logistics and technology sectors to come together to discuss how innovation, in terms of technology and data, can be best deployed to deliver increasingly safe, efficient, green and interconnected logistics.
Delegates heard from expert speakers about digital innovation today, cyber security, how to invest in innovation, AI and autonomous vehicles, working with colleagues and SMEs on innovation, innovation for modal shift, technology to make international trade easier and what support there is for the sector in the innovation space.
