8.7 Employment and training

• You commented that development should create employment opportunities for local residents in and around the area.
• You commented that the development process should be seen as an opportunity to encourage education and training in conjunction with local academies and colleges. This could include apprenticeships, work experience placements and employment opportunities for students attending these establishments.

How your comments and options have been taken into account

• This policy evidences the need and requirement to provide employment and training opportunities for local residents as part of the development, construction and end-use phases of the Area Action Plan's delivery.
• Cambridge Regional College is now located within the Area Action Plan area, establishing the link between development, innovation, industry and education.

Relevant objectives: 3, 5

Greater Cambridge is recognised as having one of the fastest growing economies in the UK and delivers large numbers of employment opportunities across a range of sectors. It is envisaged that North East Cambridge will play a significant role in meeting future employment needs of the Greater Cambridge area. As such the North East Cambridge area will continue to provide short and longer-term opportunities for a workforce with a range of skills to be employed during the construction phases of development and beyond.

The areas adjoining the North East Cambridge area are largely residential. To the east of the railway line, there is an established Gypsy and Traveller community, whilst to the south the predominantly residential wards of King's Hedges and East Chesterton both fall within the twenty most deprived wards in Cambridgeshire in terms of indices of multiple deprivation.

It is essential the proposed development at North East Cambridge contributes towards reducing such inequalities by securing training and employment opportunities for unemployed and underemployed residents in these neighbouring areas. The amount of development planned for North East Cambridge provides an opportunity to benefit local residents through support for skills development, vocational training, apprenticeships and similar employment training programmes. These programmes are of particular benefit to those residents within the local area experiencing economic and social deprivation. Provision for these schemes will therefore be sought in Planning Obligations for all major development within North East Cambridge. This will be part of a broader anti-poverty strategy to improve skills and opportunities for local people in the wider area.

New development should proactively support local employment opportunities, ensuring that skills, training and employment is not only provided but taken-up by a local workforce in both the construction and end-use phase and utilise existing and new private/public funding opportunities to develop new initiatives where possible. This will enable residents to access skilled-based employment locally and apprenticeships to those who wish to attain qualifications that will allow them to progress in their careers.

The Area Action Plan seeks to bring together innovation, industry and education which supports the overarching principles of a successful innovation district. By integrating Cambridge Regional College with the existing science and innovation parks as well as wider planned development, the plan seeks to increase access to apprenticeships and training, ultimately reducing the skills gap and increasing employment in the area. A key outcome from this will be a more highly skilled workforce, not only enhancing social inclusion but encouraging good growth within the area.

During the construction phase developers would be expected to deliver an agreed employment and training target for apprentices and trainees along with notification of all vacancies on site, which includes all opportunities with contractors and subcontractors. For both the construction and end use phases the developer should be committed to working in partnership with the Councils and specifically the Economic Development Team to produce an Employment and Skills Plan (ESP). The Councils will encourage the employment of a local workforce during the construction phase. In order to ensure access to skilled local labour is not a constraint to development delivery, the ESP should also set out measures of how the workforce could be sourced from the wider travel to work area if there is an evidenced shortage of short term local skilled labour.

• Skills, Training and Local Employment Opportunities Topic Paper (2020)
• Anti-poverty and Inequality Topic Paper (2020)
• Education Topic Paper (2020)

• Developer contributions collected for skills and training (from S106)
• Number of Employment and Skills Plan secured through S106 agreements
• Developers should provide monitoring reports of implementation of their Employment and Skills Plans
• Employment land take-up
• Working age population

Cambridge Local Plan 2018

• Policy 2: Spatial strategy for the location of employment development
• Policy 14: Areas of Major Change and Opportunity Areas – general principles
• Policy 15: Cambridge Northern Fringe East and new railway Station Area of Major Change

South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018

• Policy S/1: Vision
• Policy S/2: Objectives for the Local Plan
• Policy S/5: Provision of new jobs and homes
• Policy S/6: Cambridge Northern Fringe East and Cambridge North railway station
• Policy E/1: New employment provision near Cambridge – Cambridge Science Park