WCC and HS2 form partnership to promote skills and employment

HS2 apprentices on site in Warwickshire

It's full speed ahead for a new skills and employment partnership between Warwickshire County Council and HS2.

Main works construction on the first phase of HS2, between London and Birmingham, began in September 2020 and Warwickshire County Council's Employability and Skills Team began playing an active role in promoting HS2 jobs locally. 

As HS2 work programmes and Warwickshire HS2 job opportunities were set to rise, the WCC skills team (also known as the Warwickshire Skills Hub) wanted to do more to showcase the greater employment opportunities this presents to the county's communities.  

HS2’s construction partner for the region, Balfour Beatty VINCI, forecasts that it will need a workforce of around 7,000 people to deliver its 90km stretch of HS2 which stretches from Warwickshire, through Birmingham and on to Staffordshire.  

The opportunity to become a HS2 Job Brokerage Partner is an ideal partnership opportunity for HS2 and the Warwickshire Skills Hub team to work together and build a skills and careers strategy to a boost employment activity across the area. 

Fay Winterburn, Warwickshire County Council's Employability and Skills Lead Commissioner, said: “We are delighted to become a HS2 Job Brokerage Partner and very much looking forward to collaborating on joint activity across Warwickshire and threading HS2 themes through many strands of our work such as Careers, Employment and Inclusive recruitment." 

Julie Venn-Morton, Skills Manager at HS2 said: "We're delighted to have joined forces with Warwickshire County Council and look forward to working closely with the team at Warwickshire Skills Hub to ensure local residents are supported to access jobs on HS2. Our construction partners are actively recruiting for hundreds of roles and we want to see local people benefitting from these opportunities."

Warwickshire County Council's Portfolio Holder for Economy & Place, Cllr Martin Watson, said: "We welcome such a great opportunity to build on our existing partnership with the HS2 team and their partnership network. It was abundantly clear that the synergy and alignment between both teams works and their joint priorities meant that taking steps to formalise a joint approach for Warwickshire was a logical step and one we are really keen to embrace. 

"We believe HS2 employment opportunities are such a good fit for so many of our communities and we are very committed to playing an active role in showcasing such opportunities."