Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (CLEP) is relaunching two publicity campaigns recommending Cumbria as a brilliant place in which to live, work, study or invest. The campaigns were paused during the pandemic.

The ‘Our Future’ campaign celebrates the region’s young people and promotes the great careers available to them. The ‘Your Future’ campaign encourages people from outside Cumbria to relocate to the region.

Cumbria has the slowest growing population in England. Analysis completed for the CLEP’s economic strategy identified that there will be almost 20,000 too few people to meet employment demands within the next decade. Businesses are already facing significant labour shortages.

Jo Lappin, CLEP Chief Executive, said: “If the labour supply challenges are to be addressed it is important that all our young people understand the great career opportunities that are available to them here in Cumbria, and that they are aware of the excellent Further and Higher Education offer to help them develop the necessary skills to build their future career.

“It was very unfortunate that we had to pause the campaigns soon after they were launched. The need to highlight Cumbria as the perfect location in which to live, work, study or invest is greater than ever.

“Many young people are only aware of the careers available in their immediate home area, yet across the whole of Cumbria there are a huge number of employment options. We need to make sure that we showcase all of these.

“We also need to encourage people to come and work here in Cumbria, to make sure that we have enough employees to meet the needs of our businesses.

“For the ‘Your Future’ campaign, we will be working with our partners to make sure that Cumbria’s exceptional offer is widely promoted outside of Cumbria and throughout the UK.”

As the world begins to normalise after two years of the pandemic, these campaigns are a brilliant opportunity for the region to rise out of the ashes and start to develop economically. The potential is certainly there.