Our ambition is to improve career opportunities for Crawley residents, creating pathways to enable more access to high value jobs, while strengthening the ability for employers to recruit the staff they need, when they need.
At Crawley Borough Council, we and our partners are busy creating the right conditions for career opportunities and economic growth within the borough. Full details of how we are doing this can be found in the Employment and Skills Programme.
First published in 2016 and recently updated to reflect local, regional and national priorities, the programme outlines how the council will work with partners to enable Crawley people to access better job opportunities, all the while addressing skills gaps in the local workforce.
The programme aims to work with public and private sector partners to create different routes to education and higher value jobs. It will empower Crawley's most disadvantaged residents while enhancing the town's Living Wage status. As a key economic driver in the South East, Crawley is home to more than 3,000 active business generating 90,000 jobs – more than the town's working age population. Crawley also hosts the world's busiest single runway airport and the South East's premier business district, Manor Royal. The town only covers two per cent of the West Sussex land mass yet generates a whopping 25% of the county's Gross Added Value (GVA).
Despite the wealth of economic opportunity, Crawley residents hold fewer qualifications than the commuting workforce. As a result, they earn less due to their limited access into management and professional careers.
Addressing this gap is not only vital in enabling more Crawley people to take advantage of what’s on their own doorstep, but also fundamental to businesses too - making sure the local workforce is up to the task and making recruitment a much easier process.
The programme comprises four priority areas:
- Development and infrastructure
- Education and school
- Business and employers
- Social mobility, inclusion and employability
Local Plan Policy EC5: employment and skills development
Crawley Borough Local Plan Policy EC5 requires all major development, including residential and employment uses, to contribute towards addressing the skills gap in Crawley. This is to be achieved through the preparation of an employment and skills plan, and the making of a proportionate financial contribution towards employment and skills initiatives in Crawley.
