Skills and Training Facilities Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Education
Karen Lumley
Main Page: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)Department Debates - View all Karen Lumley's debates with the Department for Education
Skills and Training Facilities
Karen Lumley Excerpts(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Stephen McPartland (Stevenage) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. This is an important debate about improving skills and training facilities in small cities and towns, and the subject is close to my heart. In my maiden speech four years ago I said that
“here in the UK, it is possible to help a child out of poverty and improve their chances in life if they receive a good education. However, we are not doing enough; we are not lifting enough people out of poverty. In my constituency, like in so many others across the UK, there are children who have tried so hard in school. There is a cadre of dedicated and professional staff who have helped them along the way and invested so much of themselves in helping those children try to improve their life chances, but the system does not seem to work. Those children are being forced through an education system that pushes them out the other end with little chance of getting a job, as they do not have the skills that local employers want.
We need to encourage employers to work with local schools and colleges, to get fully involved in education, to highlight the skills that are missing and even perhaps to take preventive action, possibly by designing some of the more vocational courses. Perhaps the prize at the end of the course should be a job or an apprenticeship with the employer. We need to be innovative and flexible, so that courses can reflect the skills gap locally and more local people can get local jobs.” —[Official Report, 1 July 2010; Vol. 512, c. 1063.]
When I said that four years ago I set myself a target—to help 1,000 young people into apprenticeships.
Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
Does my hon. Friend agree that Members of Parliament can help by holding apprenticeship fairs, such as the one that I will be holding on Friday in my constituency? Companies such as Jaguar Land Rover will be taking part.
Stephen McPartland
I could not agree more. Apprenticeship fairs are powerful tools. I held a jobs fair recently in my constituency at which a large number of people—employers, people from educational institutions and young people—came together. That led to a number of people getting apprenticeships.