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RISE [Annual Review 2020]

Talent and Skills

Connecting Sheffield City Region’s assets – linking highly talented graduates and ambitious businesses.

RISE helps scaleups grow through supporting recruitment of high-quality graduates in the Sheffield City Region. It was first piloted in 2013 by Sheffield City Council in partnership with Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam Universities. Thanks to ERDF funding RISE has been enhanced and will continue to the end of 2022.

Since its launch RISE has supported more than 380 different SMEs, including growth businesses, across the Sheffield City Region to become successful graduate employers and to recruit over 490 graduate employees; the vast majority have gone on to secure permanent, long term sustainable graduate jobs. Between 2019 and 2022 RISE aims to support 200 scaling businesses to create and appoint to 330 graduate jobs.

Advisers work with companies to identify appropriate graduate roles, write job descriptions, advise on salaries and carry out the initial assessments of applicants. Throughout the process businesses receive information, guidance and training to give them the confidence and ability to continue to recruit graduates.

Support includes an employer briefing session, signposting to other business support advice and a toolkit to help them take on and manage their graduate recruit. One-off grants are also available to help businesses to offer a competitive graduate salary.

An independent economic evaluation has revealed that RISE has delivered £7.7m of net additional GVA to the local economy, a return on investment of £14.03 for every £1 invested.  Businesses supported through RISE have reported that having graduates in place with digital skills has had a positive impact in the transition to team-wide home working over lockdown.

RISE [Annual Review 2020] website