Norfolk Chamber was pleased to see that last week’s Queen’s Speech highlighted several measures in the Government’s ‘One Nation’ vision that will help to support and develop the talent of Norfolk’s young people.
The new Full Employment and Welfare Benefits Bill is expected to help create two million more jobs across the UK this Parliament. To help Norfolk’s young people get those jobs, they will need to be given the support, skills and experience that they need to fulfil their potential.
The Government is also looking to create a further three million more apprenticeships over the next five years, which includes about 27,000 apprenticeships in the East of England. Currently 11% of Norfolk businesses employ an apprentice. From August 2014 – January 2015 there were 3,640 new apprenticeships started, which represents a 16.5% increase of the previous year’s figures.
Apprenticeships will not only give our young people the skills they need, but the experience and ‘on the job’ training. Apprenticeships also offer local employers the chance to mould their new recruits and effectively grow their own future workforce.
The Government also intends to put in place a new Youth Allowance for 18 to 21 year olds with stronger work related conditionality from Day 1. After 6 months they will be required to go on an apprenticeship, training or community work placement. The also intend to provide Jobcentre Plus adviser support in schools across England to supplement careers advice and provide routes into work experience and apprenticeships.
The Enterprise Bill will help smaller businesses to contribute towards economic growth and to make it easier for them to create more local jobs, the Bill will introduce measures to reduce regulations on small businesses, thereby cutting the ‘red tape’.
The Education and Adoption Bill will escalate the Government’s academy programme which aims to speed up the intervention in failing or ‘coasting’ schools and will create the power to take over these schools and create more sponsored academies. Based on the latest Ofsted report, there are 90 schools in Norfolk that are currently in the second worse ‘requires improvement’ rating. The speech indicated that those schools with an ‘inadequate’ rating would usually become an academy.
Commenting on the Queen’s Speech, Caroline Williams, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber said:
“We welcome the Government’s focus on raising standards in schools, but businesses also rely on the education system to equip young people with the soft skills and attitude they need to successfully make the transition to work. The government could also help to generate a pipeline of young talent by ensuring that secondary schools are measured on pupil destination and earnings, by guaranteeing a business governor in every secondary school and ensuring that every student leaves school with high quality exposure to business.”
One of Norfolk Chamber’s key campaigns for the coming year is ‘Developing the Talent of Norfolk’s Young People’. This is something that the Chamber is passionate about and has been involved in for some time.
The support for schools on business/education was improving a few years ago, but I am sorry to say it has taken a large and disappointing leap backwards in recent years due to Government changes in policy. We are please dot see the Government addressing some of the issues surrounding schools and actively pushing apprenticeships, but more work needs to be done to bridge the gap between the world of education and work. The Chamber will continue to work with our education and business members to ensure that we work in partnership towards closing that gap.
