Graduates help reverse Cumbrias brain drain

OVER 300 graduates are eagerly seeking employment in Cumbria, according to North West Business Access (NWBA). The specialist recruitment service, which works with small and medium-sized businesses across the region, believes these graduates offer a potential solution to Cumbriaís íbrain drainí problem, which is seeing many local businesses struggling to find appropriately skilled employees as more and more young people leave the area.



Sarah Stables, business advisor at NWBA, said: I meet many local recruiters from small businesses in Cumbria who are experiencing problems securing employees with high level skills. However, this neednít be the case. We have a database of over 300 graduates based in Cumbria, all of whom are extremely keen to find graduate level work in their home county, and give something back to the area in which they live.

These motivated young people can provide the skills and knowledge desperately needed by so many businesses in the area.

Julie Barton, operations director at Forge Europa Limited, Ulveston, said: We are based in a fantastic location in the South Lakes, which is a wonderful place to live and work. However, we found it difficult finding people who wanted to work in a rural location.

NWBAís database allowed us to find Cumbrian graduates who left the area to go to university, but want to return to their home county to work - exactly what we were looking for. And the service is free!

Jonathan Nicholson, a recent graduate from The University of Manchester and one of the graduates on the database, explained: I want to work in Cumbria because it is my home. I hope that I can find the right graduate opportunity to enable me to do this.

NWBA is a free specialist recruitment service, part-funded by the (ERDF) and six North West universities, including Cumbriaís St Martinís College. It helps SMEs in the North West who are looking for ways of using student and graduate talent to grow their businesses.