Professional Services
Professional support for the whole economy and a successful future.
The Sector represents a wide range of businesses that provide essential support to all other sectors, from accountancy and legal services through to veterinary and education services. The professional services sector in Cumbria accounts for 17,500 jobs, spread over 4,000 businesses. GVA per job is £56,629, which, although the second highest per sector within Cumbria, is still significantly below the UK average by 15%. This sector is currently under-represented and therefore has the potential for significant growth and will be instrumental in supporting inclusive growth for other sectors within the county.
The potential for growth is high and our professional capability will be key in supporting opportunities for all sectors within the county. Growth within the sector will be dependent on finding ways to collaborate to “punch above our weight” as small businesses to extend our ability to bring support that might otherwise be delivered outside Cumbria.
Becoming more capable, professional and able to deliver more value by winning more work with agility, collaboration, cohesion and resilience
Modernising and encouraging innovation in the sector
Providing great professional development, careers and jobs, and attracting people to the region
Underpinning and enabling all sectors through a strong joint offer
Our aim is to enable new business by encouraging greater cohesion and collaboration within and across our sectors to grow new opportunities. The sector is critically dependent on the skills and capabilities of our people, and our ability to maintain and grow our professional skills base in the county.
With greater cohesion and collaboration between sector based firms it may be possible to build new opportunities to win business within the county that may otherwise have been delivered elsewhere.
The quality of what we do is unquestionably high – we can offer varied experience and great careers to young entrants to the sector – if we can grow our education offer and collaborate on delivery we can enhance our attractiveness to young professionals and reduce youth unemployment.
The sector in Cumbria has a unique offer for early careers, in that smaller businesses allow trainees more hands-on work experience opportunities and the chance to progress quicker in their careers than graduates in large cities, where there is greater competition.
The newly-convened Professional Services Sector Panel will look to address sectoral challenges and identify opportunities to support all the county’s businesses to grow the economy and improve productivity within and across sectors.
