THIS EDITIONS GUEST COLUMNIST

Andrea Marshall

STRATEGIC OD & HR MANAGER AT SALFORD CITY COUNCIL

I am delighted to have been asked to introduce myself in this edition of Achieve Magazine.

I’m Andrea Marshall, Strategic OD & HR Manager at Salford City Council. I joined Salford in June 2022 and was so proud to join a team and Council committed to ensuring all our employees can develop and succeed in their roles.

Here at Salford City Council, we have a long and successful relationship with Apprenticeships at Salford City College, which allows us to do things a bit differently. Our tailored approach allows us to customise our apprenticeship delivery to incorporate Salford’s values, procedures and ‘local’ requirements, giving us high-quality provision for our employees. We have created bespoke packages in partnership with the college, such as the Public Sector Leadership Programme and Aspiring Managers Programme. The Public Sector Leadership programme is delivered in partnership with other Greater Manchester local authorities, such as Tameside and Stockport councils, to increase the variety, skills, motivation, digital capabilities and behaviours of our collective workforce.

Our Skills and Employment Strategy sets out our ambitions for making Salford a better place to live and work. We strive to be an inclusive and representative employer and endeavour to have a workforce that reflects the people and communities we serve. We want to ensure the council continues to operate as a socially responsible employer and a leader for innovation and change within the public sector.

We know that some of our residents continue to face complex challenges when it comes to finding and sustaining good quality employment, despite the city’s growing economy, and we want to ensure apprenticeships are used as a catalyst for creating more meaningful and accessible opportunities. We are currently embarking on a project working with young adults from the city to hear first-hand and co-design our recruitment opportunities.

Developing work experience and traineeship opportunities as a pathway into apprenticeships is a priority for us. We also aim for our apprenticeships to raise aspirations and support our priorities to tackle poverty and worklessness by offering the Living Wage to all apprentices and employees.

Finally, we are so proud to have won a Public Services People Managers Association award in 2022 for the Best Partnership / Collaboration for an innovative collaboration between local services, public and private, and not-forprofit sectors. The partnership demonstrated commitment and determination to support local businesses when they needed it the most, upskill staff, and hire young residents by thinking differently for us to gift apprenticeship levy funding. This is much more than this, though, as so many different organisations worked together, including Salford City College, and continue to support one another for greater impact in the future, jointly working towards key priorities for the city.