CEO Letter

What's to come in Walpole's year of jobs and skills

In line with the start of National Apprenticeships Week, our Chief Executive Helen Brocklebank has written about why 2023 marks the start of our focus on preserving, enhancing and showcasing the jobs and skills that make our country's luxury sector the envy of the world. Find out what the upcoming year holds for Walpole and how you can be a part of it...
6th Feb 2023
CEO Letter What's to come in Walpole's year of jobs and skills

Dear Walpole members,

As 2023 gets underway, I wanted to write to you about an exciting new project Walpole will be undertaking over the coming year. This year will be the year of jobs and skills at Walpole, with a relentless focus on the most valuable resource for all our businesses: our employees. This will encompass a number of workstreams across the year, however it will culminate in September with the publication of a Jobs and Skills Report.

Modelled on last year’s hugely successful Tourism Report, this groundbreaking analysis will assess the contribution the UK luxury sector makes to the economy and employment, showcase the amazing jobs that the sector offers, and provide some proposals for how policy changes from government could make a real difference to your businesses and the workforce.

The core theme of the project is telling the story that the UK luxury sector creates well-paid, rewarding, high-skilled, sustainable jobs across the UK. It is proactive in solving its problems and our members are the employers of choice in their communities, supporting local and regional communities across the country.

I have lost count of the number of times our discussions have turned to workforce and staffing in recent months. Whether that be the amazing ways your businesses are supporting your workforce through the cost-of-living crisis, or the huge challenges you are facing in finding enough employees with the skills you need.

We will be kicking the year off with a series of roundtables and one-to-one discussions that will allow us to hear directly from members about the challenges you are facing with recruitment, retention and rewarding your people, and sourcing the skills that you need to meet your customers’ expectations.

Following this we will be partnering with a leading economic research agency to survey the membership, crunch the numbers and create an accurate assessment of the size and scale of employment in the sector, the value that this creates, and trends in employment within the luxury industry.

This research and member feedback will, in turn, inform an assessment of the kind of skills which the sector relies upon and an analysis of where the gaps are. This will help contribute to our engagement with government on access to labour and skills.

I want to use this project to also build a better picture of the scope, nature and spread of employment at each of our members, in order to help stakeholders visualise the contribution members make to employment throughout the UK. We will also be featuring the stories of members through a range of case studies that highlight the best practice that is entrenched through the sector.

This project will be a substantial workstream for Walpole in 2023, however it will be impossible to complete without your support. I hope that you will be as generous as ever with your time, data and insight as we construct this unique and vital piece of research. I will be reaching out to you all shortly with dates for roundtables, conversations and other events. In the meantime, if you have any questions, thoughts or want to offer your support, please contact Jon in our Corporate Affairs team directly

Yours sincerely,

Helen Brocklebank

Chief Executive, Walpole

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