Graduates’ job boost
MORE than 200 North East companies will be able to secure graduate talent for their business through Teesside University with a £724,000 boost from the European Union.
The money has been secured from the European Regional Development Fund through regional development agency One North East and adds to the £2.35m investment pledged by the RDA last year.
The Graduates for Business programme, which gives SMEs access to high level graduate knowledge and expertise, is managed by Entrust and delivered in partnership with the University.
One North East head of European and skills strategy Lesley Calder said the programme would encourage SMEs to offer new graduate level jobs and stimulate innovation and ideas in the workplace.
Most recent figures show that such initiatives were helping to arrest the brain drain from the region.
At the end of 2006 there were 750 more people aged 15-29 in the North-east than there were at the start of the year. That compares with 2001 when almost 3,300 young people left to find work elsewhere.
With regional unemployment now at its highest level for more than a decade - at 8.4% - there is growing concern the trend might be reversed.
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