Rossendale boss struggles to recruit workers

12:02pm Monday 30th July 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Chris Adams

JOBS are going begging in Rossendale because so many workers prefer to travel outside the borough to work.

That’s the claim of East Lancashire businessman Martin Lewis, managing director at Bacup-based Beta Group.

He claims he is struggling to fill five vacancies at the manufacturing and maintenance firm in Underbank Mill, Burnley Road, despite appeals across Lancashire and Greater Manchester.

He said: “We are a succ-essful company with busy order books and plans for continued growth in our 25th anniversary year.

“However, no matter how hard we try we can’t seem to find the people with the skills we need.”

“We employ more than 50 people, many from the Rossendale area, but response to our advertisements has been disappointing.”

He discussed the issue with the East Lancs Chamber of Commerce’s new Rossendale Business Group, and hopes employers can work together to address the issue.

Mr Lewis said a survey conducted by the group found that despite the lack of a rail link, 27per cent of people in Rossendale travel to Greater Manchester to work.

This compared with just four per cent from Burnley, and seven per cent from Blackburn.

Mr Lewis said business leaders would be talking to the education sector to ensure school leavers were aware of the careers avail-able locally.

He added: “I am also delighted to see Rossendale Council supporting the business community by attending the business leaders’ meetings.”

Mike Damms, East Lancs Chamber of Commerce chief executive, said: “There is a distinct culture of trav-elling to work that is stronger in Rossendale.

“It’s the allure of a big economy like Manchester’s, but it’s also, in part, a lack of appreciation of local opport-unities.”

Comments(26)

Your ferret stinks says...
12:08pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Why not explain what positions are available and what skills are required? or have we not got that skill either?

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2 for 5p says...
12:15pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Perhaps if you upped the wages a bit you may have more interest, oh no I forgot you won't have as much profit if you do that.

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JayEss says...
12:16pm Mon 30 Jul 12

I would happily work in the valley. However, a short drive into Manchester pays far more.
When I l look for jobs I'm happy to take less pay for working closer to home but the difference between Manchester rates and Rossendale rates are just too much.

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mavrick says...
12:25pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Perhaps it is for better pay and conditions. people usually travel to work when necessary. It does seem that in East Lancs the norm is to drive wages down to the national minimum rate. I don't know if this applies to the company in the article, but from my observations this is the case. East lancs is generally a low wage area much to it's detriment. The need for quality jobs with real prospects is the only way forward for the area. Depopulation is becoming a problem. The warning signs have been there for some time, The recession has slowed the depopulation at the moment. If you take a cold hard look at Employment, Housing, Health, In East Lancs, It is not an area you would choose to move to, it is an area you would move from. I wonder if the governments idea of regional pay will completely destroy the area?

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juanbbien says...
12:34pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Why not state what positions are available and Some indication of the pay and hours,as these are quite an important factor.

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hi everyone says...
12:38pm Mon 30 Jul 12

i may no have the skills bt i learn quick you can give me a job today

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jimpy0 says...
12:39pm Mon 30 Jul 12

obviously he's too cheap to even try agencies "spit"

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woolywords says...
12:50pm Mon 30 Jul 12

You could always do a bit of research on the internet for the company and see what jobs that are available...

Or copy and paste this to your browser..
http://www.betagroup
ltd.com/Contact-us/J
obs.aspx

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her from here says...
1:18pm Mon 30 Jul 12

If I was unemployed I'd take anything as I have done in the past,
Surely anything is better than not working.

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hi everyone says...
2:56pm Mon 30 Jul 12

i am unemployed at the moment and would do anything ,anyone else applying for countless jobs and hearing nothing,one interview in 3 months and the interviewer had to remove the ad from the job center after 5 hours as he had 85 phone up and could not get his own work done,just shows how many applied for jobs

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Reality50 says...
3:26pm Mon 30 Jul 12

The story is misleading.If this employer cared so much he would train local young people himself.He goes on about not being able to find people with the skills yet he has lots of local people on his doorstep who will not have the skills.Train them up and stop being so lazy!!!!!!!!!!

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Reality50 says...
3:31pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Also until Rawtenstall gets it's own train station with a regular service to other towns it will remain a backwater.What is needed is for the East Lancashire private rail company that operates the Heywood-Bury-Ramsbot
tom-Rawtenstall private line to sell up to the mainstream rail network and make that train line a regular commuter line thus creating potential investment to both Bury and Rossendale.

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her from here says...
4:45pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Reality50 wrote:
The story is misleading.If this employer cared so much he would train local young people himself.He goes on about not being able to find people with the skills yet he has lots of local people on his doorstep who will not have the skills.Train them up and stop being so lazy!!!!!!!!!!
Spot on

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caballo says...
5:25pm Mon 30 Jul 12

her from here wrote:
Reality50 wrote:
The story is misleading.If this employer cared so much he would train local young people himself.He goes on about not being able to find people with the skills yet he has lots of local people on his doorstep who will not have the skills.Train them up and stop being so lazy!!!!!!!!!!
Spot on
Bang on the money!!

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Your ferret stinks says...
7:23pm Mon 30 Jul 12

caballo wrote:
her from here wrote:
Reality50 wrote:
The story is misleading.If this employer cared so much he would train local young people himself.He goes on about not being able to find people with the skills yet he has lots of local people on his doorstep who will not have the skills.Train them up and stop being so lazy!!!!!!!!!!
Spot on
Bang on the money!!
Rubbish! This guy has to make money from the very first day he gives someone a start as thats when he is paying wages.
If you want to get a skill enroll at nightschool, businesses are not there to train people from the word go, if your unemployed you have no reason not to enrol on a training course day or night.

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Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
8:18pm Mon 30 Jul 12

Do Dole Dossers not get extra money if they go on a training course?

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Reality50 says...
10:09pm Mon 30 Jul 12

The problem with businesses in Britain is they have become lazy when it comes to recruitment.Sadly to to cuts there are very few decent training schemes around and not everyone feels happy in a college environment.To say they can't recruit due to lack of skills in the area is a cop out and any company of a similar size to the one in this story could hold a training course say for a couple of weeks.It would cost the company little and in fact would pay for itself and there would be lots of unskilled keen locals who would turn up.Give these local people a chance rather than writing them off and looking elsewhere.It saddens me when businesses ignore the pools of untapped talent-even if they are unskilled-and then recruit people from 20 or 30 miles away.Stop being lazy and give these locals a free trial and train them on the job.Britain is failing partly because of the attitude of business to unskilled local labour and this company typifies the current attitude.

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mys says...
9:04am Tue 31 Jul 12

What it really boils down too is some people don't want to work.

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GAC says...
9:32am Tue 31 Jul 12

and yet again a company crying because no one has the skills they want. seeing this week in week out now, how do they expect to take people on for skilled jobs when they wont invest in there own staff to begin with.

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GAC says...
9:39am Tue 31 Jul 12

and to the guys who say people on the dole need to get training, il agree with you there, but when theres no money for them to get training with what are they supposed to do??

the jobcenter is supposed to have a pot of cash for training people up, the problem is you have to convince them to pay for your training. and the limit is £500 and you have to have a job waiting once you are trained up. and also it cant be a new career, it has to add to your current skills to continue your career path. so if you want to get trained up in a new career you have to find the cash yourself and then find work as the jobcenter wont help you with anything besides basic form filling skills and simple it skills.

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BritainfortheBritish says...
7:30pm Tue 31 Jul 12

Maybe if benefits were not so much people would work for a living .

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bacup born says...
11:23pm Tue 31 Jul 12

Just looked at the jobs........whoww, just the thing for Bacup folk local jobs in WHATTTT. it's a joke as is all the job scene at the moment and don't be fooled with government sh..t neither , We are being screwed by government !

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Bacupbloke says...
6:59am Wed 1 Aug 12

Skilled people move to areas where there is a concentration of their kind of work. There have been similar stories about factories in Burnley and other northern towns where they can't find staff. No wonder Eastern Europeans take the jobs when firms advertise abroad.
But don't blame Beta group. Look at the majority of the Bacup population. Schools are turning out an unqualified population who face a lifetime without jobs because apart from a lack of technical skills they have no social skills. This was the town where Sophie Lancaster was murdered. This is the town where the yobs rioted last August
and the decline goes on.
The local population has a wide range of vocabulary: their favourite words are beer, pubs, fags, dole, giro, gangs, but not work, jobs or wages.

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hollinsclaret says...
8:14pm Wed 1 Aug 12

What an incredible thread this has become!. It's not to me that many East Lancashire folk have such an appealing lack of appreciation for a bloke that's trying to employee people. The majority of negative speculative comments deifies belief. "Cos you won't make as much profit" why is that a crime? (profit) it's the common denominator that keeps every man and women employed you twonk !.... "this story is misleading if he cared he would train young people himself" for Christ sake have a look at your self? how do you know he isn't going to? how do you know he doesn't ?have others that can train people?, ...... "he will make money from the day he employs someone" you gonk? how the hell do you think we have an economy without entrepreneurs...... he employs people, pays tax at a high level and manufactures things, something this area is always moaning about the lack of. I will tell you this for nothing, immigrants that go for many of these low paid jobs (that's even if they are low paid and we don't know that) won't be so cynical' they will be grateful for a chance to prove themselves, something many folks seem to have forgotten you need to do when building a careerer for yourself, stop criticising the bloke he's doing more than most of you will ever do in a lifetime! its easy to sit on the sidelines moaning all ya life, this guy employs people and provides them with some hope I say Good Luck to you Sir !

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GAC says...
9:02am Thu 2 Aug 12

hollinsclaret wrote:
What an incredible thread this has become!. It's not to me that many East Lancashire folk have such an appealing lack of appreciation for a bloke that's trying to employee people. The majority of negative speculative comments deifies belief. "Cos you won't make as much profit" why is that a crime? (profit) it's the common denominator that keeps every man and women employed you twonk !.... "this story is misleading if he cared he would train young people himself" for Christ sake have a look at your self? how do you know he isn't going to? how do you know he doesn't ?have others that can train people?, ...... "he will make money from the day he employs someone" you gonk? how the hell do you think we have an economy without entrepreneurs...... he employs people, pays tax at a high level and manufactures things, something this area is always moaning about the lack of. I will tell you this for nothing, immigrants that go for many of these low paid jobs (that's even if they are low paid and we don't know that) won't be so cynical' they will be grateful for a chance to prove themselves, something many folks seem to have forgotten you need to do when building a careerer for yourself, stop criticising the bloke he's doing more than most of you will ever do in a lifetime! its easy to sit on the sidelines moaning all ya life, this guy employs people and provides them with some hope I say Good Luck to you Sir !
maybe you should have had a look at the jobs before you start moaning about peoples comments. the guys after skilled people, and like many companys he's upset that theres not the skilled people localy to fill the roles.

this is happening all over the northwest (and the country probably) thanks to years of under investment in training and apprenticeship schemes, hence there seems to be so many now (great if your 16-24, not so great if your older). i dont have any sympathy for companys who expect to never train staff and just take people on fully qualified with years of experience. the jobs market just cant support that anymore.

and as iv said above you cant blame jobseekers for not being trained when they cant get the training for anything past basic office skills thanks to the state of the jobcenters being understaffed and underfunded for training.

got nothing against someone trying to make a profit but if you cant hire someone on a low wage its one of two problems. one, theres no one local to do the job. two, the wage is too low to attract the skilled people you need.

now the guy has the option to either take on an apprentice or two or up his pay rates to entice people to travel further to work. if all he can do is moan in a newspaper about it (like many company's seem to do now) i can see the business lose money and start running in to problems with completing contracts on time and eventually close down thanks to poor planning.

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pdb951 says...
6:15pm Sun 5 Aug 12

Up the pay and you may well be surprised. What a stupid story.

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