Could firms in Devon offer jobs to people being forced to flee Ukraine? | News

The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership are looking into the possibility

Work is underway to see what jobs firms across Devon can offer to people being forced to flee the conflict in Ukraine.

The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) have been looking into the idea – even if it is only for temporary work.

Their Chief Executive, David Ralph, says it’s one way people here can help: “There might be an opportunity with sponsoring Ukrainian people coming in to help with some of our challenging labour market issues across the patch.

“It’s early days on how we deal with the crisis, but I think people as communities are standing up with solidarity and I think a number of businesses that we’ve talked to are looking about whether sponsoring is a way forward for them now.

“It’s complicated; it’s not entirely clear at the moment about the process for doing that, but that is starting to emerge and we’re seeing things literally change on a daily basis.

“We should want to and we will accommodate a whole series of Ukrainian refugees. Therefore they need to be able to work and therefore that is an opportunity for us to try and apply these people effectively and get them to live useful lives whilst they’re here – and businesses are really looking at that opportunity going forward.”

David says although the crisis in Ukraine is not having as bad an impact on businesses and communities in the South West as it is in other areas, they have a number of businesses that use suppliers from the country:

“Some people have offshored their staff, so they’re reliant – particularly say in the cyber sector or the digital sector – they’re using staff from Ukraine.

“Generally it’s impacting the whole of the supply chain, so there is a major knock on effect to our area.

“For example, we will see food being affected in terms of wheat, etc. where we’re very reliant on that part of the world. But also we’re seeing delays to our supply chain and basically making it more difficult to conduct our business.”

David Ralph – CEO of The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership

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