Lord Evans of Rainow
Main Page: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Evans of Rainow's debates with the Department for Education
(13 years, 3 months ago)
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Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)
14. What steps he is taking to support manufacturing.
Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)
15. What steps he is taking to support manufacturing.
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)
As part of rebalancing the British economy, we are taking steps to support manufacturing in the UK by encouraging high levels of business, innovation, investment, exports and technical skills. I set out our strategy for achieving that in a talk to Policy Exchange yesterday.
Vince Cable
Yes, we are fighting a historical trend, because, under the previous Government, and certainly over the past decade, manufacturing contracted as a share of the economy more rapidly than in any other western country and we lost a third of the work force. We have to retrieve that, and one of the main ways of doing so is through promoting innovation. The first innovation centre, as my colleague rightly points out, is the manufacturing technology innovation centre, which has seven campuses. Composites is one of those core technologies being developed, which I very much welcome.
Graham Evans
Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we are effectively to support manufacturing, we need to ensure that our future work force have the necessary skills? Will he join me in welcoming the approval of Sandymoor free school in my constituency, which is receiving support from the nearby Daresbury science and innovation campus and which will help to achieve this goal?
Vince Cable
Skills are obviously critical, and no doubt my hon. Friend the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning will say more about the big increase in the number of apprenticeships shortly. I am sure that the school in my hon. Friend’s constituency will contribute to this at an early stage of development. Apprentices are a real success story and we are certainly going to build on it.