Mayor unveils £5m bid for new construction skills villages in York and Scarborough
York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith has unveiled plans to back new York and Scarborough skills hubs with £5m funding. (Image: Submitted)
I’ve spent much of this week in Liverpool at Labour Party Conference, meeting with Ministers, businesses and campaign groups.
Beyond the headline-grabbing speeches from Secretaries of State, party conference is a great opportunity to talk up our county and make sure York and North Yorkshire stays on people’s minds.
Among the many announcements and policy directions that were set out, one has stuck with me that I think will have real benefits for many young people in York and North Yorkshire.
The number of young people not in education, employment or training is a national crisis.
It’s forming part of a serious problem with skyrocketing benefit bills and means there are fewer people in work able to support that system.
Recommended reads:
More fundamentally than that though, we have found ourselves in a situation where over one and a half million young people are left detached from society and despondent as they are locked out of employment.
Here in York and North Yorkshire, we estimate that around 8,000 young people find themselves in that position.
Now, I’m going to push back on the narrative that some people peddle that they are just lazy.
I think that ignores the fact that many young people in this position hold GCSEs, A-Levels and, in many cases, university degrees.
Getting your foot on the employment ladder is hard, and that’s why Mayors and national Government need to step up and make sure people get more opportunities for work experience, the right training courses and qualifications for the jobs in our regions.
I got my first job at 15, working at Daleside Nurseries in Killinghall, sowing seeds, helping customers and looking after the plants.
It didn’t just spark my lifelong love for gardening; working in a ‘grown-up’ environment taught me valuable things that have set me up for life.
Work hard, respect other people and be on time. It gave me a real sense of purpose and pride in doing a good job.
Those are things that only hands-on experience can teach you. That’s why I want more young people to be able to access the working world.
The Government are working closely with Mayors to create more of those opportunities, with the introduction of Vocational GCSEs, greater investment in regional skills and training packages for Mayors to shape with local people and, when all that works, making it easier for young people who can’t rely on the Bank of Mum and Dad to get on the housing ladder.
Apprenticeships are a great place for young people to get a good start, giving people hands-on experience in the workplace, paired with classroom-based learning.
York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith has unveiled plans to back new York and Scarborough skills hubs with £5m funding. (Image: Submitted)
Last week, I went to visit construction apprentices at York College.
The work they are doing with employers across Yorkshire to make sure young people have access to good-quality jobs and education is invaluable.
Oli was one of the apprentice bricklayers taking part in the Barratt Homes apprenticeship programme.
His focus and dedication were clear to see, and he told me that the traditional education system wasn’t for him but his apprenticeship was giving him a real purpose and getting the best out of him.
I want more young people to have the same sense of belonging and purpose that Oli and hundreds of other young people at York College feel.
That’s why tomorrow I’m taking a proposal to my Cabinet to invest £5m to create more opportunities to learn, train, re-skill and upskill.
At the heart of that plan is reopening Scarborough Construction Skills Village, and creating a new York Central Construction Skills Village to make the most of the huge building boom we’re about to see through that site.
We want to make sure that no matter where you live, you can access some of the best-quality apprenticeships in the country.
That’s exactly what these two new centres of excellence are going to provide.
As we build the thousands and thousands of homes that people in our county need, there is a massive need for talented brickies, sparkies, joiners, plumbers and more.
We’ll work with construction companies of all sizes to bring those opportunities closer to young people.
That local ambition is being backed by national Government, with the Chancellor, John Healey, setting out this week a £100m expansion of the Local Apprenticeship Service, allowing all Mayors to expand and create regionally tailored plans for their regions.
Making that announcement, the Chancellor likened Mayors to football scouts.
It’s a fair comparison, because we can work much more closely with small and medium-sized businesses to create training opportunities that align with their business needs than central Government ever could.
Together, these steps are going to help us make York and North Yorkshire the best place to start your career and ultimately be able to stay here.
What do you think?
Feel strongly about an issue? Write us a letter. Please write no more than 250 words and you must provide your full name, address and mobile number. Send your views by email to: letters@thepress.co.uk