Loading... Please wait...

13 November 2009

Labour invests in skills for Birmingham's future -

This week the government announced a new ambitious vision for giving people and businesses the skills they need to help drive economic growth here in Birmingham.

‘Skills for Growth – The National Skills Strategy’ sets out a pathway to achieving a bold new ambition for three quarters of the population to go to university or get an advanced technical qualification by the age of 30.

Here in Birmingham we all know the importance of investing in skills – especially from our experience of the collapse of MG Rover in 2005. I am delighted that the construction of a new state-of-the-art building for Bournville College officially gets underway next week. The new college at the Longbridge site will be really important to boosting skills in the area and providing real opportunities for young – and not so young – people in the years to come.

The government’s announcement this week is great news for people in Birmingham. It shows it is Labour that has the ideas for Britain’s future and is willing to invest in ensuring that we’ve got the skills here in Birmingham to succeed in the years to come.

The Labour government will:

  • Create a modern class of technicians, through a dramatic expansion of  advanced apprenticeships, creating 35,000 new apprenticeship places over the next two years;
  • Give every adult in Birmingham who wants one a personal skills account, empowering learners to shop around for training with new information on how well different courses and colleges can meet their needs;
  • Radically simplify the way in which skills policy is delivered – working with the UK Commission for Employment and Skills to reduce the number of public bodies by more than 30;
  • Work with business to focus funding on the areas of the economy that can do most to drive growth and jobs, deploying around £100m to support around 160,000 training places in areas such as life sciences, digital media and technology, advanced manufacturing, engineering, construction and low carbon energy;
  • Offer 1,000 new scholarships worth £1,000 each, to encourage the best apprentices to progress into higher education;
  • Give more employers the chance to drive and shape training provision through launching a fifth competitive bidding round of the National Skills Academies programme.


Announcing the new skills strategy, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said:

“Higher level skills have never been more important to our growth. This strategy marks a radical shift in our skills priorities. It shows how we’ll make sure we’ve got the skills to power the new industries and jobs of the future.

“We need engineers to lay the cables to expand access to high-speed internet, skilled people to build the electric vehicles of the future, and technicians to develop the medicines that will save lives.

“We’ll help do this with a major expansion of advanced apprenticeships, by empowering learners with skills accounts, investing in the growth sectors and simplifying the system.”