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Welcome! I'm Zulfi Hussain and I am Chair of the City Region Employer Coalition.  I sit on BT's regional Advisory Board and also run a group of social enterprises.

The City Region Employer Coalition (CREC) is a network of over 200 employers who meet regularly to discuss recruitment and retention issues within their sector (Care, Contact Centre and Transport) or on themes (Diversity and Flexible Working).

We have been working with large local employers in West Yorkshire such as British Gas, BT, HSBC, first direct, Fujitsu, ITV Yorkshire, Royal Mail, Yorkshire Water and many others for over a decade on moulding employment and skills programmes to their needs, especially for those disadvantaged in the labour market.  Our members also provide a business voice into local and central Government, to ensure that publicly-funded employment and skills policy and programmes meet employer needs.

Now, to help employers in a large area of Yorkshire gear up for the economic upturn, the Employer Coalition has taken two major steps:

• From 1st October 2009 we have extended our remit across the wider City Region area to provide better access to employment schemes for employers in a larger area stretching from Skipton to Harrogate, York and Barnsley.  We work as a city region because the day-to-day lives of people do not start and stop at local authority boundries.
• At the same time we have become the specialist employment and skills division of the Leeds, Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.  This will strengthen our own capacity and resource and will provide an important extra dimension to the Chamber's work for its 3,000 members and their 500,000 employees. 

Demographics

Leeds City Region is the real economy for eleven local authorities of Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby, Wakefield and York, along with North Yorkshire County Council.  It is the area across which people travel to work, spend their leisure time, go to school and live.

With close to 3m people and a resident workforce of 1.2m, its residents have diverse needs and so local authorities in Leeds City Region are pooling their strengths and assets to better access freedoms and flexibilities from central Government.  For example, West Yorkshire has a younger population compared to other parts of the UK, resulting from a high proportion of ethnic minority residents.  Bradford, in particular has a unique and diverse demographic with a younger and growing population compared to the rest of the region: 37% under 25, against the national average of 25%, but it also faces the challenges of an ageing population.

Economy

The Leeds City Region covers a diverse area, with wide-ranging economic issues and is driven by a higher value-added service sector.  With 100,000 businesses and annual gross value added of around £45bn per year, the Leeds City Region has a large and growing economy.

Entry-level jobs provide most new service sector employment.  For example, in Leeds, over 20,000 people are employed in contact centres. CREC's Contact Centre group comprises 25 companies who proactively work to open opportunities for unemployed and under-employed people.

York brings in well over £4m visitors annually, generating £363m locally.  Voted recently 'European Tourism's City of the Year' because of its "gateway" role, it also brings benefits to the whole region.  For this reason, CREC has plans to establish a Visitor Economy employer group in the near future.

Downloads

Newsletters
CREC Feb '10 Newsletter
CREC May '10 Newsletter
CREC Aug '10 Newsletter

Coalition Information
How we can help you
How you can help us

Diversity
Diversity Toolkit
CREC West Yorkshire Diversity Forum: adding value report

CREC Contact Centre Group: adding value report