Future of Work Summit looks to inspire Southampton

Leaders from Southampton’s public and private sectors were given the opportunity to hear and discuss how the city can prepare for the future of work at the MAST Mayflower Studios on Tuesday (31 January).

The morning session, which was hosted by Omega RE’s Nella Pang, featured speakers covering a range of topics, with speeches from Nella and Southampton City Council's Satvir Kaur. The afternoon, including another panel session and the keynote speaker was led by Carswell Gould's Ed Gould.

Starting with speakers on the themes of People, Place and Prosperity, delegates heard from Dr Debbie Chase, Director of Public Health at Southampton City Council, on the link between health and work.

She was followed by Anthony Painter, Director of Policy and External Affairs at the CMI, who discussed the importance of management and leadership, and the skills gaps in these areas. Finally Ben Clark from the University of Southampton’s Future Worlds programme explained the importance of focusing on success and the need to take risks when investing in Startups.

Up next was a panel session on the global marketplace for skills including Roger Gorman, Founder and CEO of ProFinda, Martin Pardey, Director of Hays Technology, Nazrene Mannie, GAN Global’s Executive Director, Andy Tourell, Head of Sustainable Logistics at Ocean Infinity and Anna Thomas, Co-Founder and Director at the Institute for the Future of Work.

Key themes in this session included the skills gap within the tech sector and the need to inspire the next generation of employees to choose roles within it, the difficulty of preparing for jobs and positions which do not exist yet, the role of apprenticeships and data in filling these gaps and the need for inclusion and diversity as well as the opportunities associated with it.

After lunch delegates had the opportunity to give input around the themes of Skills, Net Zero and Inclusion, with these providing the starting point for whole-room discussions.

These were topics speakers and audience members returned to throughout the day, with a running theme being the links between them, and the need for the future of work to be fair and inclusive of everyone.

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In the afternoon, a panel session featuring Claire Hughes – Head of Business and Law at Solent University, Matthew Hill, Southampton City Council’s Economic Development Manager, Zoe Huggins, Chair of Workforce South, Liam Doe, Co-Founder and CEO of Old Bond Store, Tim Riches, Executive Director at Navigatr and Upton Training Manager Ismail Ahmed looked at how Southampton can be ‘Future Ready’.

The panel members discussed how skills can be developed across all generations, and the opportunities to work alongside social enterprises and charities to give back to the communities they work in.

The last speaker of the day was Andrew Carter, Chief Executive at the Centre for Cities, who gave a comparative view of Southampton’s place among the UK, as well as discussing how the cities of the future may develop to be greener and more productive.

Across the entire day an oft-repeated topic was the need for collaboration between different sectors and businesses within those sectors, with delegates and speakers alike showing a clear desire to find ways to work together to make Southampton the best it can be going forward.

Councillor Satvir Kaur, Leader of Southampton City Council, said: “Events like this are so important, and they help us to recognise that Southampton, like so many other cities, faces huge challenges, including health inequalities and areas of deprivation.

“There’s a real recognition that one of the best solutions to that is work, and particularly high-skilled, high-paid work. It’s horrifying to know that those that live outside the city and come into it for work get paid more on average than those living within it.

“Today’s about bringing businesses of all shapes and sizes, together with community organisations and partners to say that despite our challenges, Southampton has huge aspirations and ambitions and also huge potential, so how do we ensure we reach that potential?

“One of my greatest takeaways from today is looking to the future and saying ‘how can future growth areas benefit us today? How do we address the skills gap? And what we can we do about recruitment and retention?’ These are areas both businesses and today along with future generations care about.“

Ben Clark, Director of the University of Southampton’s Future Worlds, said: “In these kind of events its great to get people form all around the city together in one room, who are taking loads of different angles, all from different perspectives, and getting them to all meet together so they can see what each other are doing.

“It’s really good to connect with other stakeholders in the region to understand how what we’re doing can compliment and fit in with everyone else. Hopefully there’s some great opportunities for collaboration.”

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