Since reporting back, the key focus has been on:

1. Understanding how existing Birmingham Future activities, events and initiatives fit within the conclusions and recommendations.
2. Meeting with key stakeholders, members and partner organisations to gather feedback and assess areas of potential collaboration.
3. Brainstorming ideas for delivering against the challenges laid down by the Commission.

We are extremely conscious of not letting the current momentum die and – as an audience member at the launch so pertinently questioned – ensuring that the report is not consigned to the shelf as an archived document.  However, we equally do not want to rush into anything without proper consideration of the best route forwards.  The Future Commission has laid down some big challenges and we all need to think smart in terms of how to deliver them from the collective resources available.

So for now, please rest assured that we are in the process of drawing up a strategy/ plan of action and that it is our intention to release this in the coming weeks. And of course, watch this space…!

The economic prosperity of the city has been and will always be at the very heart of what Birmingham Future stands for. As a collective of young professionals who have made their careers and lives in Birmingham, our members take a passionate and energetic interest in all aspects of the city’s development.

Birmingham Future is determined to play its part in the design and delivery of the strategy that influences the conditions and environment that ensures our city is the number one choice for the brightest talent to work and live here.

What makes a city attractive to young professionals in whatever field they make their careers is a complex one. There are many influences that impact on the decision to choose where you will work; it may be a family connection, a specific career option or the wider social and cultural offer of a city. In all probability it will not be a one dimensional decision.

One thing, however, is very clear. For Birmingham to continue to build on its reputation as a prosperous and exciting city and crucially, as a centre of excellence for business and professional services, we need to know and understand the key factors that influence the decision process taken by talented young people when they decide where to locate. Importantly, once they have decided to choose Birmingham what do we need to do to support, mentor and retain them?

This strategy however, will need to embrace thinking far beyond just attracting graduates from other parts of the UK. The city needs to ensure that members of our indigenous population feel they can embark on fulfilling and successful careers within our sector too. This will be a major challenge.

The key outcomes of the Report will be presented to the city’s leading business and civic figures at a breakfast briefing being held at Bruntwood’s Mclaren Building in Birmingham City Centre.

The Future Commission was set up by Birmingham Future to produce an in depth analysis and exploration of the key conditions and environment required to enable the city’s Business and Professional Services Sector (BPS) to attract and retain the brightest talent.

Birmingham Future appointed world renowned Warwick Business School, under the leadership of its Dean Professor Mark Taylor, to lead the academic aspects of the Commission and recruited eight independent Commissioners, under the Chairmanship of former Director-General of the IOD and well known business figure, Sir George Cox, to oversee the project.

During the past six months, The Future Commission has taken evidence from a wide range of business figures from both within and outside the city. Warwick Business School has also undertaken research into the trends and outcomes that lead to career choices for graduates in the professional sector and looked at a series of worldwide initiatives and best practice. At its outset The Future Commission set out to answer two key questions;

1) What are the key conditions that will make Birmingham the number one choice for young professionals?

2) How does the young professional influence the shape of the city?

At the breakfast briefing this morning, Commissioner and the key inspiration and driver of the project, former BYPY, Hilary Allen and the Report’s academic lead Michael Synnott of WBS laid out the Commission’s key findings and recommendations contained in the 60 page Commission Report.

The key findings and recommendations can be summarised as;

Young professionals view talent development as vitally important. This has led to a recommendation that key stakeholders within the City work together to look at the sustainability and logistics of creating a Management Academy. Establishing a Management Academy in the City would provide an opportunity and vehicle for the City’s brightest talent to be mentored and nurtured by senior professionals and be able to provide a forum to share best practice and experience to strengthen recruitment and retention in the City,

The Commission also concluded that the future prosperity of the BPS sector in the City would increasingly rely on the supply of skilled knowledge workers and competition would grow ever stronger to attract and retain them as global competition intensifies. Therefore a series of recommendations are highlighted in the Report. This includes a greater cooperation between the City’s education providers, community leaders, Birmingham City Council and the BPS sector to address the social cohesion, mobility issues and skills gap that exists in the City to ensure the indigenous population becomes more aware of, and engaged in, the opportunities that exist in the City’s professional sector and develop skills to take advantage of these opportunities. This includes consideration of a summer placement scheme, building on Birmingham Future’s Graduate Apprentice Scheme, in which Birmingham based sixth form and FE students are offered summer work experience places in BPS firms. The Commission also recommends that more effective engagement and connections are created between teachers and the BPS sector to encourage greater awareness of the opportunities and requirements of the BPS sector and the Commission acknowledges this must be led by employers  Finally, the Commission believes more work is needed to strengthen the links between the city’s universities and FE colleges and the business community to promote the City’s offer as a number choice for the graduate and fledgling young professional.

Commenting on the conclusions of the Commission’s work and on the Findings and Recommendations contained within the Report the Chair of the Commissioners, Sir George Cox said;

“It has been a long road from inception to completion. The project was nothing if not ambitious. Our deliberations covered a number of themes that might have constituted an area of enquiry in their own right.  The Commission’s sessions and meetings have always been stimulating, provocative and lively. We did not always agree, but we argued our points out carefully, with reference to the evidence, which was being carefully constructed by the academic team.

“Not every idea or perspective has made into the Report. We limited ourselves in the first instance to things that were achievable within a 5 year timeframe. But the issues we grappled with were large issues and there are recommendations in the final report that also speak to the longer run. Everything in the Report reflects the ideas and insights of the Commission as it worked together as a team over the last six months. I was pleased to have been asked to Chair the Commission and I am proud of what we have achieved together.”

Dean of the Warwick Business School, Professor Mark Taylor commented:

“This is a Report to help shape the agenda for the growth and success of Birmingham’s Business and Professional Services sector through the lens of the young professional community. WBS was delighted to work with Birmingham Future and such an energetic group of commissioners on this important piece of work. Not everything in the Report will be popular and not everything may be implemented. But the Report provides plenty of food for thought for Birmingham Future and others in the business community and beyond about the agenda that must be collectively faced and addressed if we are to ensure the City’s growth and success.”

Birmingham Future Chair Nicola Fleet- Milne said;

“The economic prosperity of the City has been and will always be at the very heart of what Birmingham Future stands for. As a collective of young professionals who have made their careers and lives in Birmingham, our members take a passionate and energetic interest in all aspects of the city’s development.

“At Birmingham Future we thought long and hard about how we could make a significant contribution to the key challenge of attracting and retaining the brightest talent in our sector. We felt that we needed to have an in depth exploration of the issues surrounding this complex question. So the The Future Commission was born. We felt an independent Commission with a remit to explore these issues freely and without influence from interested parties was the best way forward. We were delighted that WBS came on board as an academic partner, that Colmore Business District saw the potential and quickly signed up to be our project delivery partner- along with a whole host of other sponsors, Pertemps, Birmingham Metropolitan College and Birmingham Met Academy and AECOM. and supporters.

“To commission an independent report resulting in a series of recommendations was in some ways a bold move on Birmingham Future’s part. The conclusions of the Report will challenge a whole range of stakeholders. The recommendations of The Commission may not be easily achieved.

“However, we believe this Commission Report and its recommendations will provide ample scope for further discussion and action to take place to facilitate tackling these key challenges.  Birmingham Future understands and appreciates that progress has to be a collective effort. No one partner can deliver solutions alone. We do believe however, that The Future Commission has set the agenda for that work.

Further information from; Tim Rudman at Urban Communications on 0121 213 4719 email; tim@urbancomms.com

Birmingham Future revealed details of the project to an audience of business and civic leaders in Birmingham. Hilary Allen and Gareth Morgan revealed the commission will be chaired by Sir George Cox and has a strong team of commissioners investigating the central theme of the project: attracting and retaining talent in Birmingham.

The commissioners, who come from a range of backgrounds and includes a young representative from Birmingham, will take evidence from experts regionally, nationally and across the world as to how Birmingham can develop the conditions and environment that will attract the talent of tomorrow to work and live in the city. The Future Commission will review best-practice and evidence before developing a series of recommendations for business and city leaders that Birmingham could investigate in order to secure its future growth and prosperity through young professionals and considering the decisions they make in choosing their place of work.