Blunkett Calls for "Pride in Apprenticeships"

Former education secretary and Sheffield Brightside MP David Blunkett has called on the region's businesses to work together to help restore pride in apprenticeships.

Speaking at a conference organised by law firm Hill Dickinson to address the skills crisis facing the manufacturing sector, the MP called on the region to learn from the past and make the most of the "tremendous" potential in the city.

The event at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham brought together city leaders from across the education and industrial sectors to find new ways to work together to help balance the economy.

Delivering the keynote address, Blunkett welcomed the renewed focus on apprenticeships and said everyone should work together to build on the current momentum.

He said: "Apprenticeships are not just about skills. They are about growing pride in the job and raising the status of the position.

Image: Former Sheffield Brightside MP David Blunkett

"We need to encourage youngsters to think creatively about what they can do with their hands and their brains. We must help them to learn to take pride in what they can make.

"We have tremendous heritage and potential in engineering, but we have to remain one step ahead. Instead of resisting change, we should be welcoming it and taking he lead so we can shape it."

Blunkett said it was important everybody across the public and private sector worked together to improve skills and called for "imaginative" thinking it developing new solutions.

He added: "We can do it better and more effectively together. We need a vision we need a vision to make it work. "We need a bit of jingoism in Sheffield. We should be shouting about South Yorkshire and what we have to offer. We should be proud of our past - not living in it, but learning from it.

"We owe our young people. We need to give them their self-respect and self-worth back, but most importantly we have to pull all the pieces of the jigsaw together to give them hope for the future."

Philip Upton, Business Services Manager for Brinsworth Academy of Engineering attended the conference and spoke highly about the comments made by the former MP "To hear David speak so encouragingly about apprenticeships can only do good for the sector, we have seen an overwhelming response to our own programme in recent months and we hope that this event can continue to spread the good news across employers".

To find out how an apprentice can benefit your business, contact a member of the business development team on 01709 389520.