Economy: Manufacturing

Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top Excerpts

Monday 10th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My Lords, the Government will provide an extra contribution of £40 million to deliver an additional 20,000 higher apprenticeship starts in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years. Professional bodies are playing a key role in developing a professional apprenticeship route. The changes we have made to higher apprenticeships now provide a clear, work-based progression pathway from an apprenticeship through to higher education and professional careers.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister recognises that the north-east is a very strong manufacturing area but has continuing unemployment. Will he guarantee that the Government will eventually support the UTC that Hitachi wants to sponsor in Newton Aycliffe in order to get a highly skilled workforce for train building in the north of England?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I will need to write to the noble Baroness about that specific example, but I hope she will be greatly encouraged by the huge amount of work going into progressing the UTCs. There are 50 of them, creating 30,000 opportunities for young people to train as engineers and scientists for the future. These are the skills that we need to build up.