“Salford was not a place I thought would have a future career for me, now that has changed." These are the words of the new assistant director for skills and work at Salford council.
Born and bred in the city, Matthew Ainsworth hopes to stop people who live in Salford feel like where they're from is a barrier to success. He believes that has changed since he was growing up - but admits there's still work to be done.
Mr Ainsworth will spearhead the Skills and Work programme, which received £1.5m in funding in November and is a key priority for the council. The updated programme will help to provide opportunities to young people progressing into education and work; connect adults to employment and training opportunities; and support businesses to create sustainable opportunities for local people.
Mr Ainsworth says he has three key aims:
- Improving and increasing the quality of local jobs
- Improve the capacity and ability of local education and technical skills providers to work with academically vulnerable young people and low skilled adults
- Improve the skills of Salford residents
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“I don’t want people living in Salford to feel like it is a barrier,” Mr Ainsworth said. “When I was growing up in Salford I never had any sense of it being a growing city in terms of employment opportunity.
“In the 80s when I was making decisions about college and university I didn’t think Salford was a great place to be for employment. Even Manchester was not in a great place at the time.
“Me and my colleagues were looking to London for opportunities. Those people who were originally looking to London now may think, ‘why not go to Salford’.”
Fortunately for Salford, he did not go down south for employment and joins the council after seven years with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority as its acting director for education, skills and work. In addition to his previous nine year stint with Salford Council, he also previously worked at Nottingham City Council and JobCentre Plus.
“When I was young large parts of Salford was just a car park for the city centre of Manchester and that has changed,” Mr Ainsworth continued. “There is still work to do when it comes to transport as it is great if you want to get to Manchester, but if you want to get from one place to in Salford it is tricky.
“Some of this is about opportunity and broadening people’s horizons and thinking more than what is on their doorstep and broader than that, across Greater Manchester and the North West. The most important thing for me is to make sure that the infrastructure is in place for people to work and study where they want to and which is not prohibited.
“At the moment this is hard. This is a journey that Salford is on. It has already developed so much so we are not just going from a standard start.
“Salford is a city that’s really going places and is a driving force in Greater Manchester. All residents should be able to see and feel the benefit of its growth and have access to more opportunities to increase their skillset or access training opportunities.
“As the new assistant director for skills, works and the inclusive economy, I will put all my effort into making that the case and putting Salford at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse.”
