High-quality staff crucial if St Andrews is to prosper

The Courier, 2 November 2004

St Andrews business people are concerned potential employees are put off from working in the town because of its image as a ‘golf only’ resort for older people.

That was just one of the findings from a survey carried out by the Manpower, Skills and Business Development Group of the St Andrews World Class Project.

The survey was conducted to identify the training and manpower needs of St Andrews businesses which, if addressed, would help them to become world class.

Concern about finding and keeping high-quality staff was an ongoing issue which emerged from the survey.

Business people thought that efforts should be made to develop the skills of those who could be the future employees of the town, such as students and school pupils, so they had an early understanding of customer care and other areas.

A further barrier to recruitment was the high price of housing which frequently meant staff had to be brought in from outside the town.

The survey, carried out over the summer, was sent to all 550 St Andrews businesses which fell under the ‘KY16’ postcode.

In addition, 23 face to face interviews were conducted with key groups and people within the community, including the Community Council, St Andrews Links Heritage Trust, the St Andrews Retailers Association and many others. Two focus groups were also held.

While half of businesses canvassed did not know about the St Andrews World Class Project, the vast majority of those which learned about its aims and objectives following the survey were very supportive.

Stephen Carter, chair of the Manpower, Skills and Business Development Group, said: “We carried out this consultation so that we could identify what we need to do to not only help St Andrews maintain its position, but to move forward as well.

“We are currently assessing all the findings and will use this information to ensure the traditional features and aspects of the town which we all know and love are retained while also raising the bar in terms of service delivery.

“The survey has already been very useful, not least for telling us that we need to do more work to highlight where people can access information about St Andrews World Class.

“However, this piece of work is only the start of our consultation – we plan to involve as many people in the community as possible so that we can move forward together for the benefit of everyone. Indeed, a series of meetings with local community groups will take place over the next few weeks.

“If we hadn’t set the world class initiative in motion there was a very real danger we would have started to see St Andrews get left behind by its competitors and see the town go into decline.”