Di Bartok, Parramatta Advertiser

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With being a “westie” now “a badge of honour”, Western Sydney businesses gathered to hear how to attract and keep one of the biggest workforces in the country, at a Parramatta lunch today.

Deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph Ben English used his experience as driver of the Fair Go for The West campaign to inspire employers at Western Sydney Business Connection’s What’s Driving Employment in GWS lunch at the ParkRoyal.

Mr English was keynote speaker along with demographer Mark McCrindle, leading the way into a panel discussion involving workplace specialists from Matthew Folbigg, Fay Calderone and Stewart Gough; TAFE NSW strategic projects director Ron Wright and Greg Travers from William Buck Chartered Accountants. Mr English said he discovered during the NewsCorp/NewsLocal/Channel 7 Fair Go for the West campaign that people in the greater west were proud. “People in the west are proud of their area and as we went around the area we found they wanted to celebrate what was already great about the west,” Mr English said. Mr McCrindle confirmed what everyone in the room suspected — that greater Western Sydney was continuing to grow at a faster rate than Sydney city.

Mr McCrindle said the west was the “fastest growing region, in the fastest growing state in the fastest growing OECD country” and that presented challenges for employers, to attract and retain staff.

“There is a higher proportion of the younger generations in Western Sydney. In Sydney, one in four people are under 20 years, in the west, it is one in three,” he said.

Ms Calderone said younger people appreciated flexible working arrangements, the right balance between work and family life and being rewarded for their loyalty in non-monetary ways.