After the Iron Age

Sheffield’s special skills in steel production were once at the heart of England’s industrial revolution. So how will its people cope with the new knowledge-based economy and service culture, as manufacturing in Britain continues its quarter-century decline?

The city’s descent into mass unemployment and its accompanying despair, expertly captured in the Full Monty, is happily becoming more of a dark cloud in shared memory than current reality. Support from local, national and European development funding initiatives and substantial inward investment have helped employment to rise to near national average levels.

But in a city of half a million people - one of Britain’s largest - overall statistics can mask as much as they reveal.While modern Sheffield is booming in parts, some of its poorer, inner-city districts remain amongst the country’s most deprived areas. Falling unemployment figures do not in themselves tackle the problem of long-term unemployment.

ADEPT’s project in Sheffield, working in partnership with the City Council and local voluntary agency Employment & Labour Market Solutions, addresses both urban deprivation and long-term unemployment issues, and involves elements of community development as well as practical training.

It will help local people to develop the skills and experience to move into employment within in their local communities, either in regeneration and community development or in other sectors of the local economy.