SKILLxShop Concept The established way of employing the unemployed is through Job Centres. These places try to fit people to listed jobs. For people with little experience or specific knowledge, the process is dispiriting since it tries to rework the human to meet the task. Perhaps, it would be better to reverse the situation. Instead of offices that demand people come in and negotiate down their skills and interests to meet specific jobs and roles, maybe we can create places where people with shared knowledge and skills can meet up to show their capabilities and to work with others to make new types of jobs and businesses. What There are a couple of simple ways in which these places could be described: • General business - a mixture of people with skills drawn from across the management,

technical, artistic, manufacturing, etc. world who can make new connections with others and build virtual businesses to try and create new jobs for themselves and others. For many individuals, finding people with skills they do not themselves possess is tricky, particularly when un(der)employed. A shared space like this could create an artisan business environment, open to the creation of new partnerships and ways of working.

• Themed business - being with people with the same experience and skills can be an empowering experience for some people. The semi-competitive environment allows them to see more in themselves and more in what they can do. A themed space (marketing, graphics, making, web) could allow people to show existing businesses what they can do and make it easier for individuals or ad hoc groups to talk and bid for contracts.

Where Unused shops in city centre or outskirts could be used. This is a return to the old artisan concept of mixing places to shop with those to make and work. It is coupling a reinvigoration of the shopping areas with a re-building of local businesses and the people who make them live and grow. Bringing graphic design, web design, marketing, making and so on back to the high street is a way of reversing the Corbuisian flow of business to special areas (business parks, science parks, etc.) and back into the core areas of the city.

How The concept could be tried out in one empty shop in the city centre. We need:- Shop Rebranding of front with banner/graphics Office furniture Wifi/Internet Some soft furniture Volunteers to enable attendees to find their feet and find out how to make new businesses together. A strong support mechanism is needed to pump prime this kind of new way of involving the unemployed in establishing their skills, talking to others about ways of working mutually and bringing in businesses to talk and trade with the people. The system can have a self-supporting side through skill swapping and barter to enable low-cost start ups drawing from a range of skills amongst the attendees. A social networking side can expand the reach of the physical site to a greater range of people both to invite them in and to share the work. TEDxBrum TEDxBrum speakers and their ideas sparked this concept. They include: Andy Weatherley Birmingham was a city where business and passion could work together to deliver wealth and moral achievements for all. Rob Bloxham It's better to put an idea out there than sit on it and let it achieve nothing. Sarah Mount Technology is something that we can all take control of. We can make and build virtual and physical objects together in new ways. Ben Dyson & Eleanor Watson Like technology, wealth and money creation is something that we can all take control of and make work in a way that is novel. Eleanor Hoad People may goggle at non-standard ways of using the streets of Birmingham and fear change but they can realise the benefit and share the success.

Tonya Bolton Accepting and being bold and truthful about how we came to where we are can be the basis of finding our new selves and new lives. Leon Burke This concept may get people playing with Macs and Photoshop out of his favourite coffee shops. Getting going This is just an idea that came out of my experience of listening to a range of people at TEDxBrum. I'm open to it being a really bad idea (and I can identify some holes) but it'd be nice to talk about different ways of doing things that might fix a range of social problems through using local places and local knowledge to empower people and support their skills rather than endlessly berate them for having the 'wrong' experience or knowledge. I can be contacted on Twitter @acuity_design Alastair Somerville +44 (0)7808 480749