By Mark Easby, Managing Director.
At Better, we believe in going the extra mile to invest in the skills of young people on Teesside.
As an agency in the North East, we have some responsibilities above and beyond producing great work for clients. A major responsibility is raising awareness of career opportunities within the creative and digital sector. Skills development and retention is a key challenge facing many sectors across the region, with our industry being no different. We’re committed to developing local talent and ensuring we provide the opportunities, through our continued growth, to keep them on Teesside.
The programmes delivered through High Tide not only provide real life work experience, but they also offer genuinely unique and life-changing opportunities for young people.
Mark and the High Tide Great North Run team raised over £3,500 to support programme delivery across Teesside.
It still pains me to say it but if you ask the vast majority of local students where the big creative and digital jobs are, their first answer would be London. This is an outdated myth, pure and simple. It’s vital that we not only make them aware of the opportunities on their doorstep, but play an active part in offering those opportunities to grow and nurture local talent. This is not just in our sector, but the other key sector across the region such as Professional Business Services, Renewable Energy, Oil and Gas, Logistics, Healthcare, Process, Automotive, Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering
The young people coming out of our schools, colleges and universities should absolutely be looking local first.
Every business in our region all have one thing in common. We all need good people. As a business community, we are increasingly recognising our individual and collective responsibility to help ensure Teesside’s young people are going to be up for the job. This may be through training, work experience, apprenticeship programmes or even cadetship visits so students get an idea about what goes on, and what job roles are available, behind our commercial front doors. At Better, we build world class brands right here on Teesside with a team of people born, bred and trained in our region. We’re very proud to be members of High Tide and I’m personally honoured to be a Trustee of a Foundation that’s making so much difference to the area we love.
Too often, Teesside as a region, and especially our young people, get bad press.
When you see and hear about the impact that High Tide is having, it’s truly inspirational. We should shout about it from the top of the Transporter!
High Tide is committed to creating and delivering innovative industry led programmes, including the launch of our new automotive cadetship and acclaimed engineering week programme. It’s fantastic to see the impact these programmes are having with graduates now going on to begin apprenticeships and further study, many within STEM areas. That’s the real magic of High Tide, seeing the Teesside spirit grow and come to life through the achievements of our young people.
High Tide Foundation – Investing in Tomorrow:
High Tide Foundation – Invest In Tomorrow from Ithica Films on Vimeo.
After hosting their second annual Fundraising Ball in September, and raising more than £17,000, sights are set high for the year ahead. The event itself, of which we were sponsors, celebrated the success over the past year of High Tide, including building and continuing relationships with over 75 industry members, delivering work experience to young people throughout Teesside, and achieving record high student satisfaction rates. This is an incredibly proud and positive time for all involved and we will continue to help them drive engagement on Teesside to increase numbers across the board.
Better – Proud Sponsors of the High Tide Ball
You can find out more about the High Tide Foundation on their website. If you’re a business on Teesside that wold like to get involved then get in touch with the High Tide team to discuss.
