The CBI has backed calls for employers to help tackle gang culture by targeting young people in disaffected areas for employment.
Moves by a group of companies in Manchester to boost their intake of staff from the notorious Moss Side district were welcomed by the employers’ body.
The Central Manchester Employers Alliance – which includes the BBC, the Central Manchester NHS Trust and the University of Manchester – sent senior HR professionals to Moss Side to give people help and encouragement to apply for jobs with its members.
The alliance’s aim is to increase employment in the area, which should give young people an awareness of opportunities other than crime and violence.
Susan Anderson, director of HR policy at the CBI, told Personnel Today that employers had a responsibility to give opportunities to people in poor communities.
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“We support the Manchester initiative,” she said. “All companies will say they are part of their local community. Where there are pockets of deprivation, we need to reach out into them.
“Companies want to employ people from local communities, and it is also good for diversity,” she added. “If there is a part of a city where people are not applying for jobs, you have to go out and challenge their assumption that they are not wanted.” ENDS
