“Bright futures ahead”: Skills Minister praises impact of Festival of Work and UTC partnership
Baroness Smith of Malvern met key stakeholders and secondary school students at the major careers fair organised by All Together Cumbria, before taking part in a special summit focused on tackling the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) in West Cumbria.
The festival welcomed 1,100 students from 11 secondary schools. They attended more than 50 interactive workshops and attended an exhibition involving 80 local businesses and organisations to gain a greater understanding of the wide range of careers available on their doorstep. Now in its fifth year, it was the largest event yet in terms of attendance and participation, and extended beyond the core sectors of construction, engineering and nuclear to encompass other industries facing skills shortages such as hospitality and public services.
Baroness Smith took the opportunity to meet students and exhibitors before joining a ‘NEET Zero’ Summit chaired by Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister OBE, who also sponsored the Festival of Work 2026. The summit brought together local businesses, skills and education providers to discuss a plan of action to reduce the number of NEETs in the region to zero.
On the summit, Josh says: “Every young person deserves a clear pathway into work, education or training. We should never accept that anyone leaves school without hope, direction or opportunity.”
Turning to the festival he adds: “Cumbria has an ageing and declining working population with low productivity. We need to do something, but we can only tackle this together; it’s in all of our interests because if we get it right it will drive the success of the county for decades to come.
“The Festival of Work shows what is possible when schools, colleges, employers and training providers come together. I’m really impressed by its scale and ambition and what it aims to achieve.”
The Festival of Work brought careers to life through a huge exhibition across the Lakes College site, which includes the BEC Construction Skills Centre and National College for Nuclear. An outdoor area allowed the students to get hands on with some of the innovative low carbon plant and equipment the Infrastructure Strategic Alliance (ISA) Plant Team has introduced to the Sellafield site in partnership with GAP Hire Solutions.
Workshops ranged from virtual reality sessions organised by AssetForward, an Engineering Formula 1 Challenge and welding simulator from Lakes College to a crime scene investigation exercise by Cumbria Police, and whacky scientific experiments from Professor Pumpernickel.
Andy Dodds, social enterprise manager at All Together Cumbria, says:
The festival was a great success and the early feedback from students is that we have achieved our goal of inspiring them to consider a huge range of roles available to them. This event complements the range of activities in our programme to support students to discover and develop rewarding careers locally.”
The event was delivered in partnership with Lakes College, and sponsors including Morgan Sindall Infrastructure (which owns All Together Cumbria), Morgan Sindall Construction, AssetForward, Cavendish Nuclear, Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick, Orano, and Selwood Ltd.
After visiting the festival, Baroness Smith took the short trip to the Energy Coast University Technical College (UTC) to see its facilities, meet students and learn more about the impact of a 10-year partnership with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure.
After touring new facilities funded by the company, including electrical workshops, she sat down to get the perspectives from students and apprentices on why they chose the UTC route, including Aaron Frew, Apprentice Electromechanical Engineer with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure.
He told Baroness Smith: “The work experience placements I had with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure gave me full exposure to engineering disciplines. Learning at the UTC combined with these workplace opportunities and employer projects has been much more beneficial for me than school.”
At the end of the session Baroness Smith, says: “You are all a credit to the UTC. It sounds like you have bright futures ahead of you.”
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