Manufacturing Skills Debate
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Catherine Atkinson
Main Page: Catherine Atkinson (Labour - Derby North)Department Debates - View all Catherine Atkinson's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
Manufacturing Skills
Catherine Atkinson Excerpts(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Richard Quigley (Isle of Wight West) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered manufacturing skills.
It is a sublime pleasure to serve under your superb chairship, Sir Christopher. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Baggy Shanker), who, due to his giddy elevation to Parliamentary Private Secretary, has allowed me to hijack his debate and talk about the Isle of Wight. Derby has rightly received a lot of focus, so now it is our turn.
Although I will of course continue to argue that the Isle of Wight does best at everything, it would be unfair of me not to recognise what Derby does exceptionally well, whether it is trains, aerospace or the development of small modular reactors, coupled with the exciting Team Derby initiative announced in last year’s Budget. It is a city that demonstrates the value of bringing together industry, skills and investment to drive growth.
Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)
I am an MP for Derby—or, as our Prime Minister called it, the “great city of Derby”—which is famous for its advanced manufacturing and engineering skills. Our largest employers, such as Alstom, Rolls-Royce and Toyota, are able to invest in skills through apprenticeships. Just last week, Great British Railways, which will have its headquarters in Derby city centre, announced up to 600 new apprenticeships. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government must focus more on enabling and supporting smaller manufacturers to invest and train up new apprenticeships to address the skills shortages across the country?
Richard Quigley
The great city of Derby has two great MPs, and I agree entirely with my hon. Friend: the more we can do to help small businesses take on apprentices, the better. Anything that teaches people who would not go down the university route a set of skills and takes them into good paid work is absolutely ideal.