Over a quarter of our local businesses are in retail and hospitality, but we have many other exciting industries here in North Northumberland. One in six is in manufacturing, construction, or utilities, with a further one in seven in professional, technical, IT or financial services – meaning a growing need for a skilled workforce.
I heard for myself from two great companies I visited towards the end of last year: specialist waste recycling company Augean, on the East Ord Industrial Estate; and pharmaceutical company Quotient Sciences in Alnwick (who now employ 220 folk locally, having started with 50!).
So ‘national apprenticeship week’ last week marked an opportunity to celebrate the high-quality opportunities now available across Britain.
University learning is not for everyone, so apprenticeships give young people a great way to learn valuable skills while earning, helping deliver a pipeline of the skilled workforce employers need, along with bringing much-welcomed passion and energy.
I’m proud that the Government has delivered nearly 700 different apprenticeship routes, which can take you onto nearly 70% of occupations, from nursing to law, accountancy and even space engineering. Since this Government took office, over 5.7 million people have now started an apprenticeship, all while funding for apprenticeships has doubled since 2010 to around £2.5 billion in 2020 – and will reach £2.7 billion in 2024/25.
Here in our North Northumberland constituency, we’ve delivered an amazing 8,870 apprenticeship starts since 2010 – around half of those since I was first elected as your MP.
This is fantastic progress – as are the new post 16 and post 18 learning facilities, to reduce travel south for college, included in Northumberland Council’s £41.2 million investment plan for Berwick’s schools – but I will continue to push for plans to be even more coherent and bring industry and government even closer together to create structured routes to long term careers in STEM jobs – from welders to AI and cyber specialists, and everything in between – to help our local businesses meet their continued need for more skilled labour.
North Northumberland’s huge geography puts unique hurdles before us in upskilling our young people, but I’m up for training our decision makers on the job!
P.S. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in finding out more you can use GOV.UK's online apprenticeship finder.