AS an MP with recent and extensive experience of UK and global business before entering Parliament, I was keenly interested in the Government’s new industrial strategy unveiled on Monday.
The green paper – so-called because Government consultation documents were once printed on green paper - was well received this week and rightly so. It is ambitious and contains many good ideas to get Britain’s businesses fitter to face the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
I was particularly pleased to read about the plans for a radical overhaul of technical education to address its historic undervaluation in the UK and provide a credible alternative to the academic route for young people who choose not to go to university.
It was also gratifying to see one of my ideas in relation to the promotion of apprenticeships taken on board.
Over the last 18 months, I’ve done a lot of work with local colleges and employers to try to boost the number of young people taking this career route.
There were 2.4 million apprenticeships started in the last Parliament and we are on track to deliver a further three million by 2020, but we need to make it easier for young people to find apprenticeships. That is what lay behind my idea to create an online application portal similar to one that young people use to apply for university through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service – better known as UCAS.
The Government has adopted this concept and the creation of a UCAS-style application system for technical education and training, to make the process simpler and generally more attractive to young people is included in the strategy document.
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, was kind enough to acknowledge my contribution in the House of Commons on Monday.
But more importantly, I believe this could go a long way to realise the Government’s ambition in developing skills by giving technical education greater parity of esteem with universities, making it easier for young people to find local vacancies and increasing the number of businesses offering apprenticeships.
Next month one of my Parliamentary colleagues, Rachael Reeves, the Labour member for Leeds West, will be in Richmond to give what I am sure will be a fascinating talk about one of Yorkshire’s pioneering woman MPs.
Rachel has written a book about Alice Bacon, a teacher who was elected to Parliament representing Leeds North East in Labour’s 1945 landslide victory. She and Muriel Nichol (Bradford West) were the county’s first female MPs.
Alice had a distinguished career in Parliament, as a close friend and ally to her fellow Leeds MP Denis Healey and the then Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell. When Labour entered government in 1964, she played important roles in both Home Affairs and Education policy.
At the Home Office, she helped shepherd through the progressive social reforms, such as decriminalisation of homosexuality, which defined the decade.
By all accounts she was quite a character who left a lasting impression on Yorkshire and the country. You can hear more about her when Rachel delivers her talk at Richmond Town Hall on Saturday, February 18, at 7.30pm. Tickets from Castle Hill Bookshop – castlehillbooks.co.uk.