Last week, The Fylde Coast Responsible Business Network (RBN) held its annual Careers Fair at the Winter Gardens & Blackpool Conference And Exhibition Centre. Returning for its third year, the event is an opportunity for Year 9 students from schools across Blackpool to meet businesses and explore careers that are available to them in the future. It’s also a chance for them to speak to higher and further education providers to learn more about the different pathways and training available to them after leaving school.

The event was led by Business in the Community, but with support from Lancashire Careers Hub and Blackpool Council’s Youth Advisors, with funding provided from the Blackpool Youth Futures Foundation partnership.

Throughout the day, a mix of 38 businesses and Higher/Further Education providers welcomed over 1,500 Year 9 students from 13 mainstream, SEND and PRU schools from across Blackpool. Ahead of the event, each school was partnered with a business who were exhibiting at the Careers Fair with the brief to arrange a pre-visit activity (and post-visit where possible) to ensure that the event is part of a process of meaningful employer encounters rather than a one-off engagement.

Our objectives for the event:

• Young people to understand the variety of careers and opportunities available to them on the Fylde Coast (and beyond), linking to LMI (Labour Market Information) data and future opportunities such as GCHQ/ digital
• Young people to understand the various pathways into employment/ careers (Further Education, Apprenticeships, T-Levels etc)
• Inspire young people into careers they had not previously considered
• Educate young people as to what skills employers expect from them in the workplace
• Inform young people about what employers provide for employees in the workplace

New for this year, and in response to student feedback, an explainer video was written and performed by Blackpool Council’s Youth Advisor team and filmed by Blackpool and The Fylde College Media students. The video is to help explain to Year 9 students what to expect at the Career Fair and how to make the most out of the event. This can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/ZHzBXI4TaFQ

Huge thanks to members of the RBN who give up their time and resource to make this event such a success, many having supported the event for the third year running. We were delighted to welcome new businesses too such as Coastal Radio DAB and Tandem Bank, showcasing careers in broadcasting and financial services respectively.

Special thanks must also go to our fabulous volunteers from DWP Digital who ensure our students navigate the zones and interact with employers, keep track of time, and support our exhibitors. We couldn’t do it without you!

With funding secure, the date of Wednesday 28 January 2026 has been pencilled in. Please do reach out to Michelle.Walker@bitc.org.uk to secure your spot early!

The government is set to release £20million of funding in preparation for the setting up of Lancashire’s new combined county authority (CCA).

The Government has announced £90m of funding to help turbocharge the work the Council has already done to overhaul Blackpool’s housing market.

The announcement was made by Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities at the Convention of the North 2024 in Leeds.

The sum of £90m from Homes England’s Brownfield Infrastructure Land Fund programme will catalyse vital regeneration projects in some of the most deprived areas of inner Blackpool.

This new landmark investment which forms part of the Government’s Levelling Up commitment to the town, will be used over the coming years to start to acquire property, facilitate masterplanning of key areas, develop further funding bids and help prepare for the development of new housing in Blackpool.

In March 2022, Blackpool was selected as one of 20 Levelling Up pilot areas in the country by Michael Gove MP.

The Council initially received monies to scale up local enforcement teams to tackle rogue landlords and improve housing standards in Blackpool.

The Government also supported Homes England to work with the Council and partners to prepare a business case for funding of a first phase of physical intervention to improve housing in the central area of Blackpool.

This allocation of £90m of Brownfield Infrastructure Land Funding has been secured following the completion and approval of that business plan.

A full public consultation on the programme of housing intervention will be launched later this year.

LOW carbon, cyber, digital and STEM jobs are set to be some of the fastest growing employment opportunities in Lancashire, a major careers conference heard.

More low carbon jobs per head are set to be created in Lancashire than anywhere in the country, Joseph Mount, of the Lancashire Skills Hub, told more than 150 delegates at the Lancashire Careers Hub annual conference.

Cyber jobs are also on the horizon with one of the guest speakers at the conference a representative of the National Cyber Force (NCF), a partnership between the Ministry of Defence and GCHQ, which will have its new headquarters in Samlesbury from 2024.

Delegates heard more about the NCF move which is part of the creation of a ‘cyber corridor’ from Manchester to Lancaster, with Samlesbury at its centre, which will bring significant numbers of skilled cyber jobs to the area.

The NCF says its arrival will help to grow technology, digital and defence sectors, as well as encouraging partnerships between government, industry and universities in the region.

It was one of many career opportunities shared at the conference which brought together organisations working with schools and colleges across the county through the Lancashire Careers Hub, heralded nationally as an award-winning, pioneering initiative and co-funded by the Careers & Enterprise Company, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, Lancashire County Council and Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen unitary authorities.

Nadhim Zahawi, Chancellor of the Exchequer (formerly the Secretary of State for Education), gave a video address to those gathered at the conference held at Blackburn Rovers FC, in which he praised everyone involved in the Lancashire Careers Hub for the fantastic work being done to open the eyes of all children to a wide range of careers and opportunities.

Sara Britcliffe, MP for Hyndburn and Haslingden, also gave a video address in which she thanked everyone involved in the Lancashire Careers Hub for giving young people across Lancashire the skills they need to be prepared for these opportunities.

The Careers Hub helps link businesses and organisations with schools and colleges to inspire young people about employment opportunities across the county, and is delivered by Inspira, the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub’s delivery partner.

Peter Caney, Head of Early Careers and Skills at BAE Systems and member of the Lancashire Cornerstone Employers, said: “Working with Lancashire Careers Hub enables us to plug our requirements into a coordinated, organised network and ecosystem reaching all the schools and colleges in our locality so we can really make a difference to raise aspirations of young people. “We are trying to attract a really diverse range of talent into our business. There’s a real breadth of skills opportunities. That future talent pipeline is so important.

“We are seeing significant growth in the demand for apprentice and graduate talent from across our business, with a broad range of opportunities in engineering including software, systems and data analysts, project management, finance, business, procurement and supply chain.

“We are looking to attract inquisitive young people, creative thinkers and problem solvers who will thrive in a future digital workplace.

“There’s a real energy around the recovery from the pandemic in getting more young people into the workplace to look, see, feel those opportunities, open their minds and raise aspirations.”

Peter was among a panel of business leaders at the conference, chaired by Debbie Francis OBE, chair of Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, which also included Neil Conlon (Conlon Construction), Georgia Thomas (Victrex) and Helen McVey (Pendleside Hospice).

Debbie said: “The work of the Lancashire Careers Hub is absolutely critical. There are a lot of growing businesses and opportunities here in Lancashire but it’s critical young people know what those opportunities are.

“We have got BAE Systems and we have got the National Cyber Force coming over the next few years and that’s going to mean thousands of jobs for people across Lancashire so it is important that these messages go out. Those are two very large organisations.

“But Lancashire has also got thousands of really successful other businesses. It has a really great foothold in advanced manufacturing. Businesses know what they are hoping to do in the future, they have their plans, and know what skills they are going to need and I would love to see even more businesses get involved with the Careers Hub.”

Joseph Mount, of the Lancashire Skills Hub, shared with the conference the county’s latest data. Lancashire’s employment rate is 72.3%, 2.5 per cent below the national average. It was 76.2% pre the pandemic. In total 20,000 job vacancies were advertised in Lancashire in March.

Employers are having to post three times on average to fill a job with analytical skills being one of the fastest growing skills required.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones, Director of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub which supports the work of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and the 15 local authorities across Lancashire, said  “The Lancashire Careers Hub is really important for our economy and social mobility of our young people.

“In terms of the economy and working with our businesses it is providing a talent pipeline to support them to grow and flourish.

“It’s also about inward investment where we are attracting businesses to Lancashire who know we have a talent pool to recruit from, so bringing those new businesses in also brings new job opportunities for Lancashire residents.

“In terms of inclusion we do have varied communities across Lancashire with pockets of disadvantage so it’s really important that we raise the aspirations and raise the ambitions of our young people.

“Exposure to employers has been proven to really boost ambition, to give young people insight into the world of work, what they could be, bringing role models in and giving them a wide insight into different sectors, and different jobs and future opportunities. We are really proud of our progress in Lancashire. We are one of the highest performing areas in the country.”

The conference enables teachers to share best practice, and the hub helps employers link with every educational organisation for 11-18-year-olds across the county.

Kay Vaughan, Careers Hub Lead, for Inspira, said: “The Lancashire Careers Hub is supporting schools and colleges across Lancashire enabling more than 90,000 young people to experience encounters with employers, further and higher education and apprenticeships providers. It is helping them to have those inspirational moments, those lightbulb moments, a nugget of information or an experience that inspires them and helps them to navigate what their next best step should be.”

Oli de Botton, CEO of The Careers & Enterprise Company, said: “It is absolutely inspiring to see careers leaders, employers, people getting involved and making sure that young people have access to really brilliant, high quality careers education. Lancashire in many ways is leading things, it’s really inspirational. It’s incredible to see where careers education is now. We have got employers stepping up, coming into schools, making the world of education and the world of business more porous to each other, more understandable. The impact of that is to the benefit of young people as they understand their next best step and they know where they are going. It’s a really exciting time and I feel excited to hear what is going to happen next.”

The Fylde Coast RBN works collaboratively with the Lancashire Careers Hub and we would be happy to connect any local business interested in working with young people to our colleagues, please contact Michelle Walker for further information on 07734 495 212 or email Michelle.Walker@bitc.org.uk