PEOPLE

A key factor underpinning Sunderland's success in attracting and retaining investment is the loyalty and adaptability of the local workforce.

There are nearly 1.5 million people living within 15 km of the city, two-thirds of these being of working age (16-64).

Sunderland itself has around 185,000 working-age residents out of a total population of more than 280,000 - making it the largest City between Leeds and Edinburgh.

Training providers work with companies to develop training and recruitment packages tailored to their individual requirements, building upon the large-scale investment already put into creating a highly skilled workforce.

Not only can businesses locating in Sunderland attract the high quality staff they need to remain competitive, but very low turnover rates provide an unparalleled degree of stability.

For example, the commitment of the local workforce has helped maintain Nissan's position as one of the most efficient car plant in Europe since 1996.

University of Sunderland

The University of Sunderland hosts 14,000 students on a prestigious riverside campus, including 1,500 international students and 2,000 postgraduate students, with 'excellent' ratings in Media Studies, Pharmacy, Physiology, Biological Sciences and Healthcare.

The University's School of Computing & Technology is the largest ICT training facility in the UK, and offers one of the best equipped computing environments in Europe to its 2,000 students.

The Industry Centre helps businesses access the research capabilities within the University, including intelligent computing, pharmaceutical and materials analysis, environmental consultancy and data capture and analysis.

University of Sunderland - http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/

The region's other universities are:

University of Durham - http://www.dur.ac.uk/
University of Newcastle upon Tyne - http://www.ncl.ac.uk/
Northumbria University - http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/
University of Teesside - http://www.tees.ac.uk/

City of Sunderland College

City of Sunderland College works with local businesses, analysing their training needs and developing bespoke courses.

It has established the North East Contact Centre CoVE (Centre of Vocational Excellence) as a state-of-the-art training facility - the only CoVE in the UK to specialize in this area of workforce development.

It also operates the ICT Networking Academy, a CoVE offering certifications accredited by Cisco, Microsoft, CompTIA and Oracle, equipping local people with the specialist expertise that companies need.

City of Sunderland College - http://www.citysun.ac.uk/