The leader of a campaign to bring businesses and education providers closer together to develop relevant skills wants to get more businesses on board.

Paul Mackie, chairman of the E3 Bradford Initiative which has attracted around 150 business backers since its launch last year, wants to get 1,000 firms involved to spread the message about the world of work among youngsters and provide work experience.

E3, which stands for Education, Enterprise, Employment, was launched as part of Bradford Council’s £7.7million ‘Get Bradford Working’ initiative and is also supported by Bradford Chamber of Commerce, of which Mr Mackie is vice-president.

It is seen as a crucial part of moves to boost the district's economic future by creating an enterprise curriculum in schools and colleges to help develop home-grown talent for businesses.

Mr Mackie, chairman of property consultants Rex Procter & Partners, says there is an urgent need to overcome a mismatch between the current aspirations of local youngsters and Bradford’s ‘producer city’ strategy.

He wants to see more business people joining E3 as ‘sector champions’ for their industries and ‘enterprise ambassadors’ spreading the word about what employers are looking for.

Mr Mackie said: “Too many 11 to 19-year-olds think their future lies in areas such as teaching, the NHS or other service sector occupations. While there’s nothing wrong with those professions, it leaves a mismatch between their aspirations and plans to make Bradford a producer city.

“There’s an urgent need to get more young people thinking about and prepared for jobs in the productive sectors. We also face an urgent challenge in Bradford to create around 3,000 jobs a year to stand still as we’re the only UK local authority area with a growing youth population.

“E3 is aimed at tackling these issues and, while I’m delighted that we’ve got the support of 150 firms, so far I would like to increase that to 1,000 . We’re well ahead of the game in tackling the skills gap in Bradford but there’s much more to do and we need business people on board to help us achieve our targets.”

Bradford-based Nufarm UK, one of the top six suppliers of agrochemical products in the UK, is among firms which has supplied details of its recruitment and employment policies as part of a drive to provide more information about job opportunities in growth sectors. It supported the Leeds City Region Employment and Skills Panel initiative which has created information resources for young people, schools, parents and providers.

Stephanie Burras, who chairs the skills panel, said: “Our aim is to connect skills to the needs of the economy. At the moment there is a perceived mismatch between the career aims/choices of young people and the real needs of the economy.”