Education is my passion. It is the route to those Tory ideals of aspiration and opportunity, and out of poverty. There is little point in bringing the jobs of the future to the North East if those jobs aren’t filled by local people. If we do not upskill our population to take advantage of the opportunities granted to us by devolution, the whole concept will have been a failure. If we can upskill our region and get household incomes in the North East the same as the South East it will be worth £19 billion per year to the regional economy.
The devolution deal gives the Combined Authority an indicative budget of around £1.8bn, or £60m a year, for adult education and skills.
My first priority as mayor is to map out the existing adult education across the North East which is currently spread across College's, Councils, Universities and Independent Providers. Once the Combined Authority has a clear understanding of what provision is out there we can begin to work with partners to set up the adult skills courses that are missing in either parts of or the whole region.
A key part of this work will be liaising with existing businesses on what they require out the workforce that they are not already getting from our existing providers.
As the combined authority moves forward, education and skills must be an integrated part of encouraging business into the region. When business is thinking of moving here the first thing I will ask is ‘what training do you need, and how can we help you achieve it’.
Getting local people into jobs created by new investment in the area will be a silver thread that runs through my entire mayoral strategy for the North East.
Schools
Not everybody thrives doing academic subjects, A-levels and GCSE’S. I will focus on practical trades and apprenticeships and will get my skills team into schools as early as possible so students know that those routes are available to them.
I will lobby government to get the powers of the Regional Schools Commissioner office transferred to the Combined Authority to better link up our strategy for school improvement alongside meeting the needs of employers and industry.
Our primary schools are high performers. Our secondary schools are much more mixed and outcomes are below national averages. Fewer North East school leavers go on to attend the top performing UK universities compared to other areas of the country.
I will lobby government for a ‘North East Education Challenge’, copying the London Education Challenge, to give us a wide range of powers and new funding over children’s education.
