£1m to finally bury our cloth cap image

UNITED in their aim to Get Oldham Working: Council leader Jim McMahon and Norman Stoller

The council’s new Get Oldham Working campaign has got off to a flying start with a £1 million grant from the Stoller Charitable Trust.

Speaking on Friday at the fifth One Oldham Business Awards, attended by 460 business leaders and their guests, Norman Stoller spoke of an “amazing opportunity” for the borough in the next few years.

He said initiatives are breathing new life into Oldham - not just for the people who live and work in the town, but for ‘our children and our children’s children’. He praised the vision of council leader Jim McMahon and chief executive Charlie Parker.

Mr Stoller described Councillor McMahon’s call to Get Oldham Working as “pure magic” and asked the audience to pledge their support in burying the town’s cloth cap image.

He said: “My bottom line is that we have been given an amazing opportunity and it should be grasped with both hands. Jim’s progress report represents investment beyond £300 million and helps remove forever the ‘old’ from Oldham.

“While all this physical change is taking place, we have yet another challenge that requires our attention — to ensure Oldham’s young people are properly prepared, through education and training, for the world of work.

“Perhaps this is the most exciting part of the whole story — an Enterprise Trust, to foster entrepreneurial spirit to support and develop opportunities for youth employment.

“The Stoller Charitable Trust has decided to sponsor a new youth and training initiative for the next four years.”

Education and provision in Oldham has improved enormously in the recent past, he said: “For those not going into higher education and the professions, education must lead seamlessly into satisfactory vocational training – and this in turn into good and progressive employment.

“The Trust will support this initiative with £250,000 in each of the next four years, the biggest single amount ever given in the 25-year history of the Stoller Charitable Trust.

“If that doesn’t get you to support Get Oldham Working then I really don’t know what will.”

Mr Stoller also argued that young people need to see other positive examples being set by the business leaders of the town alongside encouragement into work through training or care in order for them to achieve a more secure future.

Business leaders were invited to complete a pledge card detailing the ways that they can help to create 2,015 employment opportunities by 2015, from offering work experience or mentoring to supporting local suppliers and volunteering.