and to encourage employers to employ more people. The council is doing a lot of apprentice schemes. Nowadays every organisation wants somebody who is qualified but you can’t get qualified unless you have a chance. Not everybody will leave school with a bachelors degree. It doesn’t mean that you are not intelligent and you can’t learn. We are missing a section of society who are going to be left behind all the time. We need to look at encouraging employers to take people on straight from school. We need to bring back careers advisers into schools. What are your priorities as Lord Mayor of Nottingham? Young people. I am very passionate about the role young people will play in the future. Whenever I look at a young person, I see tomorrow’s Lord Mayor, I see tomorrow’s Member of Parliament or the next Prime Minister. I will work with anybody that helps to get our young people on track for tomorrow’s world. For me, if being the Lord Mayor of Nottingham makes young people think, “I can achieve something, I can do that,” to me that’s what it’s all about. If the role helps to make youngsters feel they are not trapped, but they can aspire and go for gold and do something, then that is what my work as mayor is for. Giving somebody else aspiration in the community, that’s what it’s all about, whether it be a man, woman, black of white. It is the belief that somebody from an ordinary, working background, like me, can achieve. That is what is how I hope the role will help people. Describe a typical day as Lord Mayor of Nottingham. It varies. In one day I might have two, three or four civic engagements. I might have council meetings, an interview with press, a visit, or a citizenship ceremony to welcome new British citizens to Nottingham. Last year the Black Mens’ Achievement Award 2012, which you organized here at the Council House, was very well received in the community. Will there be a repeat of this event in the future? We are in the stage of planning this year’s event to be held September 2013. We have had so much interest in it. It was started to give credibility to people in Nottingham. There are many BME individuals doing great work in the city and not shouting about what they are doing to improve the city. The black-tie awards
ceremony will probably have a networking session at the end to create links between individuals and organisations or for people to find out about a career or service that they might want to get into now or in the future. As Chair of the Community Partnership Forum (CPF) what does it hope to achieve? When we had disturbances across many cities two years ago, I thought to myself we have got a lot of organisations in Nottingham doing great work but not everybody knew who was doing what. So I thought why don’t we do something to get organisations together, working under one umbrella. I know people can say that this has been done before but what is gone is gone. The CPF is a collective of individuals and organisations that people know and trust. I am very surprised to how it has been developing. Tell me about your plans for a summer holiday programme for children in Nottingham. For the summer, I am trying to organize trips to Sherwood Forest and Skegness to have a nice day out as not all Nottingham city children might not have had the chance to visit places of interest. Last year, we have a picnic in the park. We are trying to organize a cultural day at the end of the summer as well. How can the public help you in your duties over the year as Lord Mayor? If organisations want help promoting what they are doing in the community, I am very happy to come along to support the event. Get in touch with the Civic Office through the NCC website and summarize the event and how I could support the organisation or event. Nottingham is a beautiful city and if we want to promote the city we need to work together because this is where we are and we are not going to go anywhere else. Along with the Sheriff of Nottingham, Councillor Ian Malcolm (Clifton Ward) we will try to support organisations and individuals that promote Nottingham. Civic.Office@nottinghamcity.gov.uk Tel: 0115 915 5230 Cllr Bryan: Robed and ready
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