26/06/2011 The Politics Show West Midlands

In the Midlands, manufacturing Eagles economic recovery. Business

warns of a skills crisis. In Shropshire, they are seeing red

over green electricity. Powered over green electricity. Powered

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2516 seconds

Hello again from the Midlands. Teachers walkout on Thursday over

pensions, and Unison threatened mass action in October over pay

cuts. Where is the economic recovery led by us in the

industrial heartlands? Some companies are doing spectacularly

well. JCB diggers and Jaguar Land Rover are posting record profits.

But chronic structural weaknesses remain, not least what some

business leaders are calling a school crisis. It used to be that

the skills of the workforce was one of our proudest boasts of -- boasts.

So what has happened? We will be asking our guests. That is all

coming up later. First of all, the drive to up-skill and re-skill our

workforce for new jobs in new industries. I and 26 years old and

I am a budding entrepreneur. I and 22, by graduate this year, and I am

a fashion designer. I and 32 and I have set up my own fashion business.

Three students at Birmingham City University on the verge of starting

new businesses. It is not about education, education, education as

is his -- as it is skills, skills, skills. When you go back, you are

not just an academic, you are also employable. The University has

launched an employable universe -- student programme. They have been

working with businesses. My job is all about working with students to

make sure they are developing satisfying careers. Helping it all

is a former Midlands Business woman of the year. We are designing

courses to meet their needs. We are getting a good response from the

employers, and we are giving our youngsters the best chances of

getting jobs. For many, this type of collaboration cannot come soon

enough. Philip Oliver started this video-game company in his bedroom.

Now it is one of the biggest in the world, employing 200 people in

Leamington Spa. Everyone is screaming about the lack of IT

qualified people. This is a nationwide problem. He is just back

from Reed E3 Video Game Conference in Los Angeles, a showcase for the

industry which is worth �250 million to the West Midlands

economy. First, we have to inspire children to engage in IT.

Technology is changing at such a pace that it is difficult for

education to keep up with that. By the time they have written the

curriculum, the industry has moved on. The interest -- they have to be

more adaptable. Several businesses have taken part in a survey that

the chamber of commerce is calling a skills crisis. Many employers

said that they found jobs were difficult to fill. Particularly in

IT. There are still complaints about standards of Britain and

spoken English, and the key demand is for investment in training at

all levels. The skills shortages, for many businesses, is a real

crisis to them, and what the government should be doing, as it

ploughs billions of pounds into the education sector, is to ask the

education sector to be more adaptable to the needs of

businesses. We need to balance the demand side of the supply-side.

is the -- so here is the headline. UK suffers skill shortage. This

headline was from 2000. 11 years ago. Politicians are are under

renewed pressure to change it. Has the education system be paying up

to now? If you look in this area, I am told we have 200,000 people who

have no qualifications. Something has gone wrong. The government has

talked of a need for a skills revolution. What business is saying

is that the time for talking is Applications close this week for

the second wave of government enterprise zones after the ones in

Blackburn and Birmingham. -- in the Black Country. So to our guests.

The Labour MP for Dudley North, in Austin, chairs a new MPs' committee

to try and get our region competing effectively in this fast-changing

world. So too has Laurie Lee Burke, and Chris Kelly. Ian Austin, you

are one of a number of members of this committee who is going to be

meeting fines cable tomorrow. What are the sort of arguments are you

going to be making? As we saw in the film, we space major challenges

in this region. We have seen lots of people doing well, but we face

big talent is still. We have more at the end our fest Chef of

problems. We need better standards in schools and colleges and

universities. We need more apprentices, and we need more

investments. The West Midlands has seen a 75 % increase in

apprenticeships since the coalition came in. They are getting in where

your government failed to go. choose to be 60,000 apprentices.

Now we have four times that. We had the best performing apprentices

here in the West Midlands. I do not want to strike a party political

note. I want to see the new government do it as well. Are you

doing it? Yes, absolutely. We smashed our target on

apprenticeships. That is going great. What we need, I think, is a

closer relationship between business and our educational

providers to make sure that they are in tune with providing the

skills that we need to enable business to continue on its

trajectory. There was a suggestion that there was a disconnect between

what is coming out of the education system and what businesses want,

which may be seen as a sorry commentary on many years of

compulsory schooling to age 16. might be, but we have the local

enterprise partnerships working now. Their objective is to represent the

interests of business, and they will be consulted on all aspects of

educational policy, to make sure that we get the right people in the

right jobs. Are the enterprise partnerships working? There was a

lot of concern went your government round-up the investment agencies.

The Black Country is doing a fantastic job. They hit the ground

running. I think it is really working, and having business people

on board in a way that it was not achieved before his fallible for

the economy. Let me bring in what one of our tumours said. What are

the role - for what is the role of the university's? Wolverhampton

University in the Black Country has very good links with the programme.

They are the universities with other specialist areas. We have

technology and innovation centres as well which brings together the

technology we need to get the business together with the clever

brains of universities. Another duet says that science and

engineering departments should be funded to provide mentoring

services. We need more businesses coming through than that -- like

that can be -- computer games business. This is a serious issue.

If you are a struggling small business, you want to bring in

graduates. Universities and businesses should form big links,

and I am not sure MPs he, with the resources they have... There is

further funding coming for the schemes. Every area is well

represented and fully resourced. this scale crisis, what a terrible

irony it would be, if Jaguar Land Rover was to set a plant in the

Black Country. The test would be whether it sucked in people from

elsewhere. We should have an ambition for the mess with -- West

Midlands. We want to beat the West Midlands to be the biggest increase

in skills. In your government, we saw education, education, education.

Still we have under skilled people. We made a big improvement in

schools standards, but to be doing enough? No. We need to do more.

are working as one to make sure whatever policy we come up with is

going to be the best for growth in the West Midlands. Are you stack --

happy with standards of academia? Some of the employers have been

talking about basic English. thing I am most disappointed about

is the fundamentals. It is an absolutely vital first step to

taking on an apprenticeship. 200,000 people in the West Midlands

have no qualifications whatsoever. None at all. How worrying is that?

That is shocking. I think it underlines why we should set for

our Regent the addition to set the biggest increase in school

standards. Some good things are happening now. I have said in the

interaction the you are setting aside your party political

differences to do this. His is a nicety, of are you genuinely

meaningless? Are you really working together? Absolutely. We really do.

We have had meetings with pins cable, we really do, all of us, a

have our roots and the West Midlands background at the fore.

have concerns about some policies. But we have a different government.

We are in opposition. There are things that the government are

bringing forward, and I have to make sure that I get the best but I

can thought he will I represent. the West Midlands, the

Conservatives and Liberal Democrats won a majority of seats, so it it

is a our programme, but it is right that Labour have worked together

with us. Think you're very much indeed. -- thank you. You can join

As if delivering the economic recovery wasn't enough, the

government are coupling it to their green revolution. Lower carbon

emissions and greener energy. Plans for green electricity have made

some people in Shropshire see red. If controversial plans to see eight

Super will wind farms go ahead in Wales, National Grid would want to

connect them to their network via a series of pylons through Shropshire.

With our ageing generation of coal- fired power stations nearing the

end of their lives, how to reconcile the demand for renewable

sources with the desire to protect These are the unspoilt views in

Shropshire. Jim Murray has lived here for 25 years. They are now

worried that their rural idyll could be ruined for ever. There are

plans to build a high-voltage pylons through here. The reason

people live here, and big reason why people come to visit is the

fact that it is totally and utterly unspoiled, ancient countryside. We

have been guardians of this area for many other people. Many people

in the West Midlands use this place as their area where they come and

regenerate and feel at peace, and if we do not save it, it will not

be there for them. National Grid is looking at constructing a, to take

energy generated by wind farms in Wales through took their customers

in Oswestry and Shrewsbury. There are -- they are building a sub-

station in Cefn Coch or Abermule. It could mean miles and miles of 50

metre high pylons. Communities in Shropshire are united in their

opposition to their plans, but it will not be until late in the year

when the battle really gets under way. That is when the National Grid

will unveil their preferred sub- station and route through the

network. The worst-case scenario would be pylons. They would prefer

to see underground cables. National Grid has said that no decision has

been made as yet. Our estimates are 1.6 billion -- �1.6 million per,

tut. The estimate for -- �1.6 million per kilometre or. It is

considerably more with underground cables. Many people questioned

those figures. The cost of all this falls on the consumer, which is

every one of us. We all use electricity. I don't think that in

land wind farms are the solution. We need to take a big breath and

look at what is out there, and review the policy, and that is what

I hope will come out of this. is anger in Wales too. Now, the

Welsh First Minister wants to cap the number of developments would go

ahead. If we stick to the limits in Tan 8, it will limit the amount of

electricity they will produce. In Shropshire, that will solve a lot

of our worries. There's also worries about flooding and so forth.

It is a step in the right direction. Some of the county's politicians

will be meeting national grid in the next few weeks. But for now,

people in England and Wales face an It is ironic, isn't it, but in the

name of environmentally friendly electricity, but we do threaten the

lovely environment there? speaking -- speaking personally, I

think there's a certain beauty to wind farms, but by... Not everyone

agrees with you! There has been a chorus of protest. I am more

concerned about the pylons. They are ugly, they too stretched across

the countryside, and you do see them across our countryside. If

there were an alternative way to carry that electricity, I think

that would be good. Hearing Keith Barrow there, the Conservative

leader of Trott Chick Council, he says he is not can stir --

convinced about wind farms. He is crying out for a policy lead from

the government. We have been indicated that from our policy bill.

That is not a leader from the government. We are in parrying

position -- empowering people to make decisions for themselves.

Underground cabling is an expensive process to go through as well. When

money is tight, these expensive options may not be always possible.

I suppose, thinking back to our early conversation, we might get

West Midlands industries making the wind farms! There is a business in

our constituency making ball- bearings for the wind turbines. If

we get colleges and universities working with us, we can help.

will continue this conversation another time. Just a reminder as we