Sunderland has scooped first prize in Microsoft’s Britain Works Challenge campaign; with Barnsley and Milton Keynes second and third respectively.

 

Following a criteria of impact, partnership working, best use of resources and local authority re-use, the judges singled out Sunderland for its concept of the family being the root to getting citizens back out to work. Sunderland faces specific economic and social challenges, such as higher than the national average unemployment. Focusing on the family as an entity therefore formed a central part of Sunderland’s proposal.

 

Since October last year, local authorities have been invited by Microsoft to take part in the Britain Works Challenge – a campaign for councils to devise effective programmes to address unemployment and availability of digital skills in the local community. As winners, Sunderland will receive 100,000 Essential Skills vouchers, 7,000 Business Worker and Technical Specialist vouchers and exams; and 200,000 free training places. The total cumulative commercial value of the top three places is £18 million.

 

Cabinet Member for Resources, Councillor Dave Allan said; “We are delighted to be named winner of Microsoft's Britain Works Challenge. Coming from one of the world's leading technology providers, this accolade is international recognition of Sunderland’s continual and successful efforts to harness digital technology to improve people’s lives. We believe in using IT not only to help people develop their skills, but also provide them with access to wider opportunities and services.”

 

Helen Gilroy, Head Local and Regional Government, Microsoft UK said; “This campaign is about ensuring citizens have the right skills and training to get them back into work. It’s been a tough decision process as all three finalists showed a real desire and passion to help its local communities and overall we received some fantastic entries. Sunderland was a clear winner for us because of its comprehensive understanding of its local unemployment challenges and had a very clear and strategic plan to tackle these issues.”

 

Irene Lucas, director general for  Local Government and Regeneration at the Department of Communities and Local Government said; “From what we have seen today, there can no longer be any doubt that local government is innovative and creative in developing solutions to tackle economic exclusion. In the current climate with the challenges facing us around worklessness, it is quite simply impossible to overestimate the importance of this initiative”.

 

“From the outset this has been a great initiative and the level of entries has been outstanding,” said David Clark, Director General of SOLACE. “My only wish would have been to see more city governments take up the challenge. However, I hope other authorities now use this as a template of innovation to get their communities involved and Britain back into the workplace.” 

 

Cllr Allan added; “Microsoft and SOLACE can rest assured these training vouchers will be used as effectively as possible, to benefit as many people as possible within our wider community. They will help provide the kind of online training and accredited qualifications which will help people get back into work.”

 

Sunderland, Barnsley and Milton Keynes will be able to use the vouchers through a series of partnerships with NGOs, community learning centres and public authorities. The Britain Works Challenge further supports the work Microsoft is already doing in terms of bridging the digital divide in local communities, such as the Digital Skills for Citizens (DS4C) programme. Both these campaigns form part of ‘Britain Works’, Microsoft’s initiative to help 500,000 back to work.

 

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Press contacts: 

Adrie Wessels

Bite Communications (Microsoft PR)

020 8834 3474

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