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You might wish to jet away from it all but there's no escaping the | :02:45. | :02:55. | |
:02:55. | :03:08. | ||
The closed shops on our high streets tell the story. Job cuts | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
and recession, rising unemployment and a growing number of people | :03:11. | :03:21. | |
:03:21. | :03:24. | ||
queuing for food parcels. We could not survive without them. We've | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
witnessed the struggle for survival at factories like Bombardier, the | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
lack of hope when giant firms shut up shop and we've listened to the | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
sound of protest as cuts in the public sector have started to bite. | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
A real shock. It is closing down. It might appear there are no | :03:39. | :03:45. | |
reasons to be cheerful. And then there are places like this... A | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
construction college where they're building for the future, is it here | :03:48. | :03:58. | |
:03:58. | :04:02. | ||
we'll find the green shoots of Welcome to this BBC East Midlands | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
Today special on the state of the region's economy. This evening | :04:05. | :04:07. | |
we're the guests of West Nottinghamshire College and here at | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
their construction academy at Kirkby in Ashfield they really are | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
building for the future, providing the training and skills needed for | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
the next generation of plumbers, brickies, chippies and decorators. | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
Joining me, a group of invited guests including politicians, | :04:21. | :04:31. | |
:04:31. | :04:39. | ||
business men and women and people Give yourselves a round of applause. | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
Asha Khemka, you are the principle of this college, we are talking | :04:43. | :04:49. | |
about jobs, how do the courses you round here translate into jobs? How | :04:49. | :04:55. | |
successful is it at finding work? First, let me say welcome to my | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
college, we are proud to host this event. Moving on to what we are | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
doing at the college... As you know There is a link between education | :05:04. | :05:13. | |
and economy. Just like in health, people used a measure of infant | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
mortality to judge a nation's health, similarly, education and | :05:18. | :05:25. | |
youth employment a sensitive measures of how an economy is doing. | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
How successful are you doing? successful. You can see what we're | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
doing in terms of giving people skills. I have three examples... | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
What we are doing in addition to giving people skills and allowing | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
them to progress into jobs... We are providing a job vacancy service | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
at the college were students are prepared to apply for those | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
particular jobs and we have seen 700 young people progress into jobs | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
last year as a result of that initiative. Secondly, we have | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
worked with Mansfield District Council on a summer job shop and | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
trained people on employability skills, on a five-week course, and | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
out of 60, more than 30 progressed into employment, the rest have | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
progressed into other studies and so on. Finally, we showcased the | :06:14. | :06:20. | |
work of students and invited employers and others to look at | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
what they will be employing. Becky, you have been running your own | :06:24. | :06:32. | |
business. But you have come back here to re-train, why? I was | :06:32. | :06:37. | |
running a domestic cleaning business but a lot of professional | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
clients could not afford to actually have my services. So why | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
decided to retrain and I found a cause of professional painting and | :06:46. | :06:53. | |
decorating. Do you see more of a future in that? I do. More of a | :06:53. | :06:58. | |
future and the course is so detailed that it literally will | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
give me the skills I need to get employed. Why are you here? Rather | :07:04. | :07:10. | |
than follow your education through school? I came here because I am a | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
hands-on kind of guy. When I was at school I did not really get to do | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
the practical work I can do here. I was in a classroom, doing work, but | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
here I can develop skills and hopefully go on to become an | :07:23. | :07:32. | |
apprentice. Are you optimistic? hope so. I have gone for a few | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
apprenticeships but due to my hand, because I have had some | :07:35. | :07:42. | |
difficulties with it, I have been let down. I hope it gets better for | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
you. Julian, you see many students like Ryan come through the course | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
and we know there is a shortage of housing, about 124,000 families | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
waiting for new homes, but will people like Ryan get jobs? If they | :07:58. | :08:00. | |
work hard and get the qualifications, there are | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
opportunities for them. As you can see from the facilities you are in, | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
they are fabulous and the staff work very hard to make sure that at | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
the end of the course they have industrial standard skills and have | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
a good chance when they get out there. The couple of days to go | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
before the Budget, what is the true state of the regional economy? What | :08:23. | :08:32. | |
are we looking at? The economy is growing but very slowly. It is not | :08:32. | :08:39. | |
growing in all sectors, all four companies. So it is a mixed picture. | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
-- or four companies. We need to see a further boost to that. | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
know people are claiming unemployment, in fact, the number | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
claiming has doubled since the start of 2008, with thousands of | :08:50. | :08:57. | |
job losses, 17,000 which came from council cuts. Martin, you are out | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
of work. You have been out of work for three years and your | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
volunteering at the moment. What is it like? Very difficult to find | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
jobs out there. You go into some Job Centres and the staff they do | :09:12. | :09:21. | |
not seem to be very helpful. It did not appeal to me, they can be | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
intimidating places as well. many jobs have you applied for? | :09:26. | :09:35. | |
:09:36. | :09:38. | ||
Over 50. In how long? A very period of four years. Have qualifications, | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
Business Admin, IT... I just want to work. I just want a job. We have | :09:44. | :09:52. | |
people here like Martin who have been trying hard. A over three | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
years, which is very sad. But he wants to work. I know. I am very | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
surprised what you say about your experience at Job Centres because | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
certainly the one in my constituency is a welcoming, good | :10:04. | :10:13. | |
place. I was told last week they can place people, often it takes | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
time and they need to improve people's CVs, they also know you | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
have to apply for a lot of jobs before you finally get the one you | :10:22. | :10:32. | |
:10:32. | :10:33. | ||
are looking for. How many have you applied for? 50. I should imagine | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
somebody who would want to help you would be wanting you to apply for a | :10:37. | :10:44. | |
lot more than 50. Presumably one the government to help you? I would. | :10:44. | :10:50. | |
What would you like to happen? need help. That is exactly what the | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
programmes are there to do, specifically designed to get people | :10:54. | :10:59. | |
into work, or back into work, whatever their circumstances. When | :10:59. | :11:05. | |
I visit them they tell me they are doing a very good job that that. | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
Chris, Your leader says he will guarantee six months' work to | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
people aged between 18 and 24 and sadly you told me your age earlier | :11:13. | :11:21. | |
and I am sorry you do not quite fit into that bracket! There is a catch, | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
you can do it, but you will lose your benefits, is that fair? It is | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
important we address this national scandal of youth unemployment. We | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
sort happened in the 1980s and studies have shown people who have | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
a long-term period of unemployment in the 1980s had their lives | :11:37. | :11:43. | |
blighted as a consequence of that. I don't want to see another wasted | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
forgotten generation as a result of the policies which the George | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
Osborne is pursuing which are not working, they are hurting, but not | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
working. We have seen demand being taken out of the economy, thousands | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
of people losing jobs in the public sector, unable to spend that money, | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
it is no surprise we saw there that shops were closing because people | :12:01. | :12:07. | |
have not got money to spend in retail outlets. It is important we | :12:07. | :12:14. | |
recreate demand in the economy by investing in it and investing in | :12:14. | :12:16. | |
our construction sector, the manufacturing sector, the | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
construction sector is on its knees. When the government came to power | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
this scrap the building schools for the future programme. He wore on | :12:24. | :12:32. | |
that, went to? -- you were on that, were you not? It has been taken | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
away. How does that make you feel? It really knocks your confidence. | :12:36. | :12:46. | |
It makes you feel down. Jason, we know in this part of the world it | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
is hard to find work. You worry student at this college. But when | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
you wear a student there were more jobs and it was easier to find work. | :12:55. | :13:01. | |
Now there might be 300 more people chasing one job. That is true. But | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
we need to rebalance the economy. You will have noticed there has | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
been around 59,000 more part-time jobs and people with rebalancing | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
the tax system a bit, so lifting some of the poorest people out of | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
tax and lifting millions of people out of the higher paid tax bracket | :13:18. | :13:24. | |
with more disposable income. If shops have disposable income, they | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
are spending it, investing it, people with small businesses have | :13:27. | :13:34. | |
been able to take on an extra member of staff. I think places | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
like this college Ira beacon of hope for the future because they | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
show exactly what can be done when you link skills with the community | :13:42. | :13:52. | |
:13:52. | :13:53. | ||
and have some ambition. Finding jobs and getting people -- Finding | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
jobs and getting people into work is key to growing the economy but | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
the cuts have left some people feeling like second class citizens, | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
like the Reverend Jane Lyon from Ashbourne. By having this effective | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
care package it has enabled me to be a full member of the community | :14:09. | :14:17. | |
and take an active part in life. I was pretty concerned about having | :14:17. | :14:24. | |
to go through being reassessed and I just felt like I was on trial. | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
Almost as if the people who were coming to assess the were trying to | :14:29. | :14:36. | |
catch me out. I think the problem is they sit in their office and see | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
easy targets, but they need to actually look at what people are | :14:39. | :14:46. | |
doing with their lives. It is so important that I and other disabled | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
people contribute to society. We have so much to give but we need | :14:51. | :15:01. | |
:15:01. | :15:03. | ||
Reverend Jane Lyon, you are currently getting �500 a week for | :15:03. | :15:08. | |
care and you have been told that could be slashed to about �40. This | :15:08. | :15:15. | |
dress, as we can see from that film, it is not doing you any good? | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
have certainly been times when I have had suicidal thoughts because | :15:18. | :15:24. | |
I had been so desperate. Some but not all practitioners seems so | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
driven by the cuts agenda, that I feel they cannot see how vulnerable | :15:30. | :15:36. | |
I am. They have stopped caring because they have to make these | :15:36. | :15:43. | |
cuts? That is how it feels. Not everyone. I am glad to hear that. | :15:43. | :15:48. | |
This was always going to be one of the worries though, wasn't it? We | :15:48. | :15:51. | |
accept that these cuts are being made but this was always one of the | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
worries, that the people most vulnerable would become victims yet | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
again? A they shouldn't be, and nobody makes cuts because they do | :16:00. | :16:05. | |
not care. Everyone who goes into politics goes into politics because | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
we do care and one to make changes to make things better for everybody. | :16:10. | :16:16. | |
I do not know this case at all but I am hoping there has not been a | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
determination. I believe it is Derbyshire County Council and they | :16:21. | :16:27. | |
would arch party going see her Member of Parliament. If she was my | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
constituents, I would be fighting like a tiger to make sure that | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
whatever has gone wrong goes right. I would like to think that this is | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
a very unusual case and we have not got the determination. Cuts would | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
be imposed by whichever government one of the last election and we all | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
know why. That is the deficit. We have to bring down the deficit | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
because, in simple terms, our country was on the verge of | :16:54. | :17:03. | |
bankruptcy. People in need in our society should not suffer more. | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
say they shouldn't... We don't know yet because this case has not been | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
determined that she has not gone through the process. She has of the | :17:11. | :17:19. | |
worry. I totally reject what and that is saying because in my view, | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
and on all the evidence, this government is using the deficit as | :17:23. | :17:27. | |
a fig-leaf for what is actually an ideological assault on public | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
services. We are seeing huge and that justified cuts on public | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
services which actually define the kind of society in which we live. | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
It is also important to remember that in cutting public services in | :17:39. | :17:41. | |
the way the government is trying to do, that is having a knock-on | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
effect on the wider economy because people do not have the money. 20% | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
of the region's workforce work in the public sector and are being | :17:51. | :17:58. | |
decimated by this government's policies. Attacking public services | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
and the social security benefits that the in place because, as a | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
compassionate society we should look to help people who cannot look | :18:05. | :18:12. | |
after themselves. For every �8 this Government has cut, Labour would | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
have cut �7. It is not growing the economy, that is the problem. The | :18:17. | :18:22. | |
economy needs to grow. The mess we're in is because of the deficit | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
we have inherited which has brought two political parties together to | :18:27. | :18:36. | |
:18:37. | :18:37. | ||
sort it out. Jane, you have your hand up. What they wanted to say is | :18:37. | :18:43. | |
that by having the right support, I have been able to study for an any | :18:43. | :18:50. | |
degree and do my ordination training. I can serve the community | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
as an ordained person. That is what you want to do, serve the | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
community? We have changed the system so people have control of | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
their own budgets to make their own decisions. | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
Alan Lloyd, you are trying to offer help and support of vulnerable | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
people in Mansfield but you feel you have been caught between a rock | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
and a hard place? I do, but in this particular case, it would be | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
interesting to see who is carrying out the assessment and I believe it | :19:20. | :19:26. | |
is a company we use, and they will point out that with us, a 90% of | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
our appeals had been successful. The original verdict had been | :19:30. | :19:38. | |
overturned. I think you're talking about people on disability. Tell us | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
of the effect at the cuts have had on the people you're working with. | :19:42. | :19:49. | |
Since 2009, the cuts started to hit us. We have gone down, our core | :19:50. | :19:57. | |
funding, gone down from 53,000 to 10,000. It will be nothing this | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
year. We work with the most disadvantaged on things like the | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
Work Programme. Some come to us and we introduce them for the first | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
time in their lives to toothpaste and soap and towels. Very basic | :20:09. | :20:17. | |
stuff. What is your experience of this, Helen, from Unison? | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
represent people employed in the delivery of public services and | :20:20. | :20:25. | |
what strikes me about this debate is not only are we putting people, | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
currently an employment and delivering services, I did work, | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
but it then has a negative impact on the people the use those | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
services, people like the Reverend Jane Lyon and that those you have | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
described. It has a negative impact on the local economy because for | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
every �1 spent on local services, 61p of that gets to be spent on the | :20:48. | :20:58. | |
local economy. Do the cuts not have to be made? They do not. There are | :20:58. | :21:01. | |
alternatives to the spending cuts that we have never had a proper | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
debate about. Even if you except the spending cuts have to be made, | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
you can make different choices about what they have to be spent on. | :21:08. | :21:13. | |
You can make tax more fair and cut the deal less than this economy. | :21:13. | :21:18. | |
Before he say anything else, I want to bring in Phil Matthews of the | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
Police Federation. We know very clearly that police forces across | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
the country have been severely affected. How many officers from | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
Nottinghamshire had been made redundant and what has been the | :21:28. | :21:38. | |
:21:38. | :21:40. | ||
impact? We have lost over 300 already and we are scheduled to | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
lose another 100 or 200 before we see the end of these cuts, which is | :21:44. | :21:50. | |
approximately one in five of our numbers. We have seen about the | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
equivalent other civilian staff bowlers well, about one in three. | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
Is that the same story in Derbyshire and Leicestershire? | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
Nottinghamshire had the fourth highest reduction of all the police | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
forces in the country. Derbyshire have lost something like 8% and | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
Lincolnshire something like 12%, Leicestershire something similar. | :22:13. | :22:18. | |
We have seen massive cuts on an unprecedented scale. You're not | :22:18. | :22:26. | |
alone. There are a lot of big companies in this area, such as | :22:26. | :22:32. | |
Bombardier. Tough times, Kevin Owen. How hard has it been that | :22:32. | :22:40. | |
Bombardier? Since we lost the Thames Link order, we have lost | :22:40. | :22:45. | |
nearly 1200 staff. A lot of agency staff but they believe some of them | :22:45. | :22:55. | |
:22:55. | :22:57. | ||
would have been kept on if we had got the Thames like. -- Link. It | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
has been devastating. What is it been like for colleagues with all | :23:01. | :23:08. | |
this uncertainty hanging over them? -- has it. They really did not know | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
what to do because they thought government was going to back | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
British industry and manufacturing in Britain but it does not seem | :23:15. | :23:21. | |
like we had the backing. Backing and support is what we need to get | :23:21. | :23:27. | |
this economy growing. You're from Leicester where you chair the Asian | :23:27. | :23:34. | |
Business Association, what is your experience? What -- I think we buy | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
into the localisation agenda. Let's have support for the start-ups and | :23:39. | :23:44. | |
social enterprise, but one group of men and women we have forgotten his | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
those already in business, and have been in business, and suffer | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
because they have a bad credit rating on a bad banking record | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
through no fault of their own. Might the two of the politicians | :23:58. | :24:04. | |
here and of the three parties and the banks, is to it, going forward, | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
creator road map for these men and women to bring up their credit | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
record, and start creating those additional jobs and profitability | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
so we can have prosperity again. I would welcome any support in that | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
area. Because the business does not do well first time around does not | :24:20. | :24:26. | |
be it cannot do well in the future with support? And trying times, | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
everything is scarce. The biggest asset we have in this country is | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
entrepreneur's. If men and women, through no fault of their own, have | :24:36. | :24:41. | |
on the side through bad debt are bad credit rating, we ate create a | :24:41. | :24:47. | |
mechanism, and this is a plea to George Osborne as well, let's | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
create a road map so these men and women can rebuild their credit and | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
start creating a just no jobs and profits. We need entrepreneurs and | :24:57. | :25:02. | |
need to support them. One way to help those who have lost their jobs | :25:02. | :25:08. | |
is to support them but going alone can be very daunting. | :25:08. | :25:13. | |
I had to go home and tell my family that mum had lost her job. I did | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
not think it would happen. The last eight years, I had been helping | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
disabled people. Last March, I was told I was going to be made | :25:22. | :25:30. | |
redundant and it came completely out of that move. It was completely | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
terrifying and what they realised was the council were looking to | :25:33. | :25:38. | |
other avenues to provide services to disabled people, and they | :25:38. | :25:43. | |
realise that divided not fill the gap, somebody else would. I could | :25:43. | :25:46. | |
UN look to others to help me as a cat to get up and the morning | :25:46. | :25:55. | |
myself. It was a if I had to take. I started at college three years | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
ago and managed to get into an apprenticeship. My employer was | :25:59. | :26:03. | |
selling the business and they got the opportunity to buy. A lot of | :26:03. | :26:07. | |
hairdressers and salons in the area are closing. It is a big recession | :26:07. | :26:14. | |
but you have to take the risk to move forward. | :26:14. | :26:19. | |
It has not been easy, has it? has been a very challenging 12 | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
months. The irony is that the council that make you redundant is | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
buying back your services. I knew that was going to happen because I | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
knew that the government agenda was to empower people to purchase their | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
own services. I knew that in Derby there was a gap in the market. I | :26:35. | :26:40. | |
felt that I had the experience and the knowledge to deliver effective | :26:40. | :26:45. | |
social enterprise in Derby. In some ways, are you glad that this has | :26:45. | :26:52. | |
happened? Yes. I would not go back to employment. I am glad I am self- | :26:52. | :26:59. | |
employed. Jodie Whitemoor, it took some guts doing what you did, | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
starting a business in the middle of the recession? A lot of people | :27:04. | :27:08. | |
have said so. It is a big weight but I believe that ambition is the | :27:08. | :27:13. | |
key to building any business. A lot of supporters out there if you want | :27:13. | :27:16. | |
to tap into it but I feel there should be more support for growing | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
businesses. You would agree with that Uday Dholakia, that there | :27:20. | :27:27. | |
should be more support. In the middle of a recession, starting a | :27:27. | :27:32. | |
business like Jodie has, you can make it anywhere, can sue? It is | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
fantastic to see that. The important point to remember is that | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
the private sector has created more jobs than the last two months than | :27:40. | :27:44. | |
the public sector has led Gorbals up we are seeing a rebalancing of | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
the economy which is very progressive. Senior people setting | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
up new businesses is just what we want. We have seen in a survey done | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
by expedient for us that the biggest rise in business set up in | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
the last couple of years has been in Leicester. UN in less than one | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
of those business people - how has it been for you? It is going very | :28:08. | :28:15. | |
well. The support unless there has been strong. Coming from university, | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
I had an opportunity to go on a programme which offered �5,000 as | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
well as support. The support unless there is actually very good. I | :28:25. | :28:30. | |
think without that support moulding you it into what you expect it | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
would be very difficult and daunting without. Does it take a | :28:35. | :28:43. | |
certain kind of person? I was asked that her son by a young student for | :28:43. | :28:49. | |
the BBC school reports show this week. What they refer to his, at | :28:49. | :28:58. | |
Chase here passion, not your pension. Passion is the key thing. | :28:58. | :29:02. | |
Becoming in Bedford brewer, you learn over time. Had he said to me | :29:02. | :29:07. | |
12 months ago, it is totally different. It makes you better as a | :29:07. | :29:13. | |
leader as up -- and as a person and you grow in your skills. For people | :29:13. | :29:21. | |
who don't know, you sell items at 99p and the internet? You're very | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
good at it because you have won lots of Lords. | :29:25. | :29:30. | |
Not everyone wants to know what these people were doing. | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
everyone wants to and not everyone can. Until we address the | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
fundamental problems in the economy, which as far as I'm concerned is | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
about growth and creating employment, you're not going to | :29:42. | :29:46. | |
grow the economy and address the problems of unemployment, when you | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
have a great hole where it is going out the back door. We are | :29:50. | :29:53. | |
continuing to make people unemployed in the public sector | :29:53. | :29:57. | |
with 15,000 jobs lost in the public sector last year. That will be | :29:57. | :30:02. | |
created this year and next year at the year after that. We're not | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
seeing the sort of compensated mechanism of jobs being created in | :30:05. | :30:12. | |
the private sector. Adam, let me bring you in here because you say | :30:12. | :30:19. | |
you're creating jobs? You employ 50 people? I want to put up something | :30:19. | :30:25. | |
George said. Debbie has gone out and created a business which is | :30:25. | :30:32. | |
fantastic, but it is essentially replacing the public service. | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
thing is missing. The private sector absolutely has to be | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
responsible for creating jobs and wealth for the economy, but they do | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
not think you can claim success if we are essentially just privatising | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
elements of the public service. this to do with the right people | :30:48. | :30:55. | |
for the right jobs? We looked at the college creating people with | :30:55. | :31:01. | |
the skills. We employ people generally with degrees. I have had | :31:01. | :31:11. | |
:31:11. | :31:32. | ||
a challenge for years. There is no I apprenticeships the answer? | :31:32. | :31:39. | |
They're important. -- are apprenticeships the answer? We have | :31:39. | :31:44. | |
to grow the economy, that is key. An economy that is flat lining, and | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
the government having to borrow even more money, they came to power | :31:47. | :31:51. | |
saying they were going to cut the deficit. If I was asking about | :31:51. | :32:00. | |
apprenticeships. I think they are very successful, there is a lot of | :32:00. | :32:03. | |
positive feeling about the number of apprenticeships which cross | :32:03. | :32:09. | |
across the board. Then they end up just being cheap labour? Not at all. | :32:09. | :32:14. | |
That is an unfortunate way to describe it. A non my description, | :32:14. | :32:17. | |
but what some people say has happened to them. I somebody | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
looking at deploying an apprentice in my office, I can assure you they | :32:22. | :32:26. | |
are not cheap labour. It is the most wonderful balance of hands-on | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
work experience, plus going to college and getting skills as well. | :32:30. | :32:37. | |
Hopefully a job at the end, too. definition, apprentices are doing a | :32:37. | :32:42. | |
job, learning skills, earning a wage. In my college alone we saw | :32:42. | :32:45. | |
last year 5000 apprentices going through the system and progressing | :32:45. | :32:55. | |
:32:55. | :32:57. | ||
into employment. I think we have to remember the solutions, not the | :32:57. | :33:02. | |
problems. What are they? If is about maximising potential. Yes, | :33:02. | :33:09. | |
the right attitude, positive energy, the right skills set so people | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
think creatively, think about opportunities, let's think about | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
the big countries and how the economies grow there, because | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
people are entrepreneurs. We have to take lessons and do things | :33:19. | :33:23. | |
differently. According to the report commissioned for the BBC, | :33:23. | :33:27. | |
our region ranks 4th best in its export potential. Is that somewhere | :33:27. | :33:34. | |
we should be looking at more? But his potential enough, if you're not | :33:34. | :33:39. | |
maximising potential, what you feel? We're a lucky to have a | :33:39. | :33:44. | |
strong manufacturing base in this region. A is is still strong? | :33:44. | :33:50. | |
We have major companies like Rolls- Royce, Toyota, an engineering and | :33:50. | :33:56. | |
rail sector. It is important we give a balanced position here. | :33:57. | :34:00. | |
There are job losses in the public sector but the private sector is | :34:00. | :34:05. | |
creating new jobs, particularly in relation to exporting because we | :34:05. | :34:11. | |
still have parts of the World where growth is of eight, 10%, there is I | :34:11. | :34:16. | |
areas which companies are getting involved in -- those are the areas. | :34:16. | :34:25. | |
Martin Taylor, you sell British cheese abroad, Stilton. Yes, | :34:25. | :34:30. | |
Stilton and other cheeses, we are very proud of it. We sell to 39 | :34:30. | :34:33. | |
countries and we focus on the British nature of Bee Gees and the | :34:33. | :34:38. | |
product. His that what we should be doing? Promoting the best of what | :34:38. | :34:48. | |
we do -- the cheese. We need to focus on the value end of the | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
production and say yes, it is British, the quality and everything | :34:51. | :34:57. | |
that goes with it. One of the businesses that understands the | :34:57. | :35:03. | |
need to sell skills abroad is the University of Nottingham. I spoke | :35:03. | :35:13. | |
:35:13. | :35:28. | ||
to Professor Nick miles from Yarm We use and the phrase soft landing | :35:28. | :35:33. | |
spots, so in Nottingham we have a soft landing spot for East Midlands | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
companies, National companies interested in China, and this is | :35:37. | :35:42. | |
replicated here. So we know with the landscape here it has come in | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
by her cars in Nottingham and vice versa, Chinese companies are coming | :35:47. | :35:53. | |
to us and asking how can we get to the UK? So there is a movement in | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
both directions. But fundamentally what companies and organisations | :35:56. | :36:03. | |
are looking for a talented people, which is what we are producing. So | :36:03. | :36:08. | |
what we find as a university is that our employment rate is one of | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
the highest in China. These companies want our talented | :36:12. | :36:17. | |
graduates. To me, that is a real measure of success. Young people | :36:17. | :36:25. | |
are coming to us, getting education and moving on. It seems to work in | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
China. But we have the eyes of the world from us this year. We have | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
the Olympics, the diamond jubilee, if we cannot do it now, we really | :36:33. | :36:38. | |
are going to miss the boat. You are training students that demand for | :36:38. | :36:42. | |
university for a career in fashion. How important is it to seize the | :36:42. | :36:50. | |
day? When are we going to be in such a position again? We will have | :36:50. | :36:54. | |
the world's spot light on us. Now was the time to export our product | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
and encourage our students to carry on with that optimism they need to | :36:58. | :37:05. | |
believe we can do it here. certainly need optimism. You work | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
in the bioscience industry in Nottingham, what are the dangers if | :37:09. | :37:17. | |
we do not exploit what we do best? I think we will just be overtaken. | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
It is frightening if you take a trip to China to see the rate of | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
expansion and investment over there. At the moment we have a great big | :37:25. | :37:31. | |
advantage in life science, we have the know-how here in the UK. Are we | :37:31. | :37:37. | |
in danger of losing some of the skills it? It depends on a -- skill | :37:37. | :37:43. | |
set. Hygiene factors are very important. You can get a good | :37:43. | :37:47. | |
education here in the UK, if you don't spend too much time in | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
traffic going to work and the weather gets better, I think you | :37:50. | :37:56. | |
would be more inclined to stay here than move over to a city like | :37:56. | :38:01. | |
Shanghai, which is fairly foggy and polluted at the moment. I think it | :38:01. | :38:05. | |
is a question of time. I just hope we can grow our knowledge economy | :38:06. | :38:10. | |
here in the UK so that we are not in a position where we see a great | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
brain drain. Debbie Williams, we have to blow our own trumpet here, | :38:15. | :38:20. | |
don't we? You promote than East Midlands as a place to come and | :38:20. | :38:26. | |
make films and television. It is quite a powerhouse for making TV, | :38:26. | :38:29. | |
film, digital products, including games. We have a great number of | :38:29. | :38:35. | |
games developers in this country -- this part of the country. The same | :38:35. | :38:40. | |
issues apply to be a creative -- the creative industries so we are | :38:40. | :38:43. | |
looking at how better our products can be exported. There are a couple | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
of barriers that the creative sector, it is still not seen as a | :38:46. | :38:50. | |
proper sector in some senses. That is partly because the measures are | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
not a place to demonstrate its significance. In terms of promoting | :38:55. | :39:00. | |
activity, we lack confidence, we know what makes a good... | :39:00. | :39:04. | |
Confidence and positivity. Other reasons to be cheerful? There are. | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
We are seeing developments come forward and we are seeing new jobs | :39:08. | :39:11. | |
being created and new companies being formed. We are talking to | :39:12. | :39:15. | |
manufacturers about bringing production back from China back | :39:15. | :39:25. | |
:39:25. | :39:29. | ||
into the UK. The budget is a couple of days away. If there was one | :39:29. | :39:37. | |
thing you could have, what would that we should be? I would like | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
George Osborne to give the banks fiscal rebate if they are prepared | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
to take a chance on existing business men and women who need | :39:44. | :39:51. | |
their support. Adam? I am nervous about asking banks for money | :39:51. | :39:55. |