Prime Minister gives thumbs up to Harlow College

This summer, we have seen record-breaking results at Harlow College. This is thanks to the hard work of Principal Colin Hindmarch, College staff, and all their students. Harlow College is now number one - not just in Essex, but across the whole country.

In Parliament this week, David Cameron offered his warm congratulations - as you can see from the photograph above.

The Prime Minister said:

“Harlow College shows that if students work hard and are well supported, they can achieve world class results. I wish the students all the very best for the future.”

He is absolutely right. As local MP for Harlow, I am proud to have such a famous College in our town.

by Robert Halfon MP - Working Hard for Harlow.

Five Reasons to be Proud of Harlow

This has been a very special 10 days for Harlow. For five reasons:

 

SPORTS 

Personally, because of the amazing achievement by Andrew Osagie and Harlow Athletics Club in the Olympics. It was a proud moment, seeing Andrew run the 800m finals, just a split second behind the world record-holder. This is a tribute not just to Andrew but to the Harlow Athletics Club, which is now on the map as one of the great sporting clubs in Britain.

 

SCIENCE

The second reason is that Harlow is not only a place of sporting achievement, but of scientific excellence too. The Harlow Star has reported that the drugs-test centre for the 2012 Games - at GSK - will now be transformed into a world-leading biotech hub. £10 million has already been pledged by the Prime Minister. I have visited this plan myself, and seen the incredible high-tech work that goes on there. This cements Harlow's place as a scientific corridor in the East of England, and will help to bring skills and new technology into our town.

 

SKILLS AND EDUCATION

But we don't just have sporting and scientific success. The Conservative-led Government has now announced a new University Technical College - a pre-apprenticeship school -  that will be for 14 to 19-year-olds in Harlow. 600 local children will soon have the opportunity to study high-tech vocational qualifications in medicine and biotech, as well as Maths and English A-levels. This will fasttrack them, on a conveyor belt to jobs of the future. It is something i have campaigned very hard for over two years, along with Harlow College and Anglia Ruskin University, as well as top industry sponsors including Pearson UK, Raytheon, and GSK. The £10 million pound initial funding will go into the Harlow College campus - recently confirmed as the best college in not just England but the whole country. Doors will open in September 2014.

 

BUSINESS

It is not just sports, science, and skills. Harlow is open for business as well. Not only do we now have the highest business growth in the UK, but the Conservative-led Government has awarded our town "Enterprise Zone" status as well. This means superfast broadband, lower taxes, and investment in our infrastructure and roads. (E.g. £3.5 million has already been announced, to upgrade Edinburgh Way.) The Enterprise Zone will be a huge magnet for jobs and growth, and should create 5,000 extra jobs in the area.

 

CULTURE

Finally, Harlow has long been an official "scuplture town", because we have some of the finest visual and public art in the UK. It is a credit to the town's designers and arts societies - especially Gatehouse Arts, the Gibberd Gallery, and Parndon Mill, which are all thriving. Hundreds of residents have been flocking to exhibitions in these galleries in the last few months, proving that Harlow is rapidly becoming the cultural capital of the East of England.

 

For sport, science, skills, business, and culture, Harlow is the place to be. We should be hugely proud of this - especially Andrew Osagie and Harlow Athletics Club - and shout from the rooftops about what our town has achieved.

 

p.s. On top of the extra £24 million already allocated for protecting our local NHS, Harlow patients who use dialysis will now benefit from a new renal unit. The two new units should be available for use by Harlow patients from January 2013. This is excellent news for people who have had to travel three times a week for their dialysis and who can spend many hours travelling and waiting for hospital transport. To have services on Harlow's doorstep will be of great benefit to local patients and their families alike.

This article was originally written for the Harlow Star (16 August 2012). 

by Robert Halfon MP - Working Hard for Harlow.

Getting young people on the conveyer belt to jobs

 

Like many Harlow residents I have a passion for apprenticeships. I employed the first ever MP’s apprentice from Harlow – and now have a second; started an Apprentice School in Parliament; and have worked with the NUS to set up a special Apprentice Card, giving apprentices the same rights as university students.

The economy is still difficult in Harlow. But we have a good story to tell. The Conservative-led Government has helped to boost the number of Harlow apprentices by 78 per cent - in one year. This means that we now have 350 extra youngsters in jobs.

Across the country, the number of apprentices has risen to more than 450,000. An increase of more than 50 per cent on before.

Harlow is entrepreneurial, and hard-working. Youth unemployment here is lower than the East of England rate, and lower the national average – and it has been falling since 2009. This is a tribute to our schools, Harlow College (now officially the best in England), and many local employers such as Smiths Industries, AST technologies, and many more besides.

But we also have to face uncomfortable facts: across the country, youth unemployment is high. Since 2006, it has been at around 1 million. Clearly, the problem does not just start when young people reach 18 and are unable to find work – but starts much earlier.

For far too long, there has been a conveyor belt to the dole queue. In the last 10 years, half a million children left school unable to read or write. That is why the Coalition’s emphasis on pushing reading and numeracy in our schools is incredibly important. Burnt Mill school – for example – has seen a massive increase in its results on literacy and numeracy. In the last two years, its number of pupils getting five good GCSEs including Maths and English has risen from 27% to 56%: a huge leap forward. This has been achieved by opening a new IT library, stressing the importance of reading, and by supplying the children with Kindles (electronic books) – paid for by extra funding for the poorest pupils.

The new Youth Contract starting in April will also make a difference. It means that every young unemployed person in Harlow will be offered training and mentoring by special firms – if they want it.

Finally, I have been working day and night for the past 15 months with Anglia Ruskin University and Harlow College to bring a new high-tech apprentice school to Harlow. If successful, the school (known as a “University Technical College”) will offer hundreds of local young people the chance to do top-class technical training, and go straight into well-paid jobs. I am proud that we have managed to win serious support and backing from Princess Alexandra Hospital, Pearson, GSK, BUPA, and others for our bid.

We cannot be complacent about youth unemployment. But I do believe that new investment in apprenticeships; a focus on literacy and numeracy; and extra training and mentoring will make a huge difference – not just in Harlow but across the country as a whole.
You can also read this blog in the Harlow Star HERE.

MY PROPOSAL: How to Boost Apprenticeships by 120,000

No one denies that there is a crisis of youth unemployment. Statistics show that there are now around one million young people who cannot find work (see the graph above).

But as David Miliband said to The Times last year, the Coalition Government did not “invent the problem of youth unemployment.” It started to become a serious issue under Labour from late 2005.

In Labour’s 13 years, a mountain of young British people joined the dole queue. Figures show that youth unemployment has been stuck in the range of 0.8 million to 1+ million now for more than six years. This is well before the Great Recession, and the banking crash.

The reasons for this are difficult to fathom. Clearly, far too many youngsters have been on a conveyor belt to nowhere. It started in broken families, and carried on in failing schools, where half a million children left primary school unable to read or write in the last 10 years. The result is a skills deficit.

Britain can’t afford this. 25 per cent of German companies now offer apprenticeships to young people. But in England it is just 10 per cent.

This has begun to change. The Government has increased the number of apprentices to record levels. But we are starting from a low base. In 2009, in Britain, there were something like 11 apprentices for every 1000 workers. But in Germany, it was 40.

In 2009 our young people were FOUR TIMES worse off, when it comes to apprenticeships, compared to Germans. When we consider that the Berlin wall fell only 20 years ago, this is deeply shocking: it shows just how uncompetitive Britain has become.

For years, Germany reaped the benefits of its skills policy - a culture that valued apprentices and gave prestige to vocational learning - and Germany built up its manufacturing and high-tech industry, while we lost out, not only during the last Government but during the 1990s as well.

The structural bulk of youth unemployment will take years to solve. But there are some measures we can bring in straight away for an immediate impact. That is why, for many months now, I have been pushing for the Government to use public procurement as a way of boosting apprenticeships.

Today, I am publishing a substantive and fully-costed proposal showing how to do this in practice. (See HERE.)

My plan - if rolled out across Whitehall and the wider public sector - would create up to 120,000 extra apprenticeships at no cost to the Treasury. Estimates show that this would cut youth unemployment by approximately 7 per cent.

You can download my full proposal HERE - or it follows below.

Some will be worried about opening Pandora’s box, and burdening yet more regulation on the private sector. My answer to this is simple. Let's ask Contractors to hire apprentices - but make it voluntary. No regulation. No red tape. No extra costs.

In fact, it is one of the Government’s best kept secrets that this is already been happening in the Department for Work and Pensions. It has been going on since July 2011 - under Iain Duncan-Smith and Chris Grayling - and it is working. In the DWP, 2,000 apprentices are already employed in the Department’s supply chain.

It is happening in local Government, too. Cllr Derrick Louis, at Conservative-run Essex County Council, has persuaded his Contractors and their Sub-contractors to hire more than 200 apprentices - AND he has saved more than £100 million pounds a year from his budgets.

If my proposal was implemented fully, it would compliment the Government’s plans for at least 24 University Technical Colleges, the Youth Contract, extra resources for English and Maths, and £19 million extra to create 19,000 new Higher Apprenticeships. It would go with the grain of reform - not against it.

In Harlow, apprenticeships have rocketed by 73 per cent - thanks to phase one of an apprentice revolution in Britain.

My hope is that this proposal could be part of phase two.

Public Procurement and Apprenticeships by Robert Halfon MP

p.s. I first wrote this article for Politics Home, you can see the original HERE.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

FE Week visits parliament to meet the apprentices working in MP’s offices

Following the Apprentice School I set up in Parliament with New Deal for The Mind, FE week has written an article about the scheme.

You can read it, by clicking HERE.

The Apprentice Scheme information is on THIS Weblink.

Apprentice Minister praises the Parliamentary Academy

Earlier today, I asked the Apprentice Minister John Hayes if he would back the Parliamentary Academy - a new apprentice school in Parliament that I have set up with charity New Deal of the Mind.

I also asked him if he would use Government contracts to boost the number of apprentices, and to cut youth unemployment.

His reply was encouraging, as the Minister urged every MP to lead by example, and hire an apprentice themselves - as I have done since 2010.

The full exchange was:

Robert Halfon (Harlow): "Will the Minister support the Parliamentary apprentice school that I have founded with charity New Deal of the Mind? And will he look at a similar idea of establishing a Government apprentice school, using public contracts? Figures from the House of Commons Library show that if just one apprentice were hired for every £1 million pounds of public procurement, it would instantly create 280,000 apprentices and cut youth unemployment by a quarter."

John Hayes (Apprentice Minister): "I do take the view that Government has a role, and that procurement has a role too, Mr Speaker. That's why I have established a Ministerial champions group for apprenticeships. 14 Departments are part of that. It's why we have explored the idea of Kitemarking, for good employers that use apprenticeships and supply the public sector, and put in place streamlined informational skills, for companies that want to supply Government. Can I finally say Mr Speaker, that Robert Halfon has been a great champion, by taking on an apprentice himself? And I once again urge every Member of this House to take their own apprentice."



by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Youth unemployment and my campaign to boost the number of Apprenctices

Last week, I spoke in a debate on Opportunities for the Next Generation, in the House of Commons.

In Essex, nearly 4,000 young people are not in employment, education or training, with Harlow being one of the worst-affected towns. In the Year 2000, there were around six hundred thousand 16 - 24 year olds not in employment, education or training. By 2010, the number of jobless has doubled to well over one million, where it has remained today.

Given this high level of youth unemployment, I urge that measures are taken to deal with this serious issue. I believe that this improvement should start in our schools and I welcome the Government’s expansion in Academies and Free Schools. I also support the new focus on yielding results and am proud to support many students in Harlow that have recently gained impressive GCSE results.

I believe that we must build up vocational education and I welcome the Government funding of over 100,000 sponsored work experience placements for jobless 18 – 21 year old.

Improving youth unemployment can only be achieved if we encourage the right climate for employers to create jobs. The Government have made steps to create a job-friendly climate by introducing the Work Programme, lower taxes for lower earners, cuts in small business tax and welfare reform and this is encouraging

I have always believed that this issue should not be made party political and I am openly supporting MP for Newcastle North, Catherine McKinnell, who has put forward a proposal to Parliament. This proposal would require companies wining large public contracts to provide apprentiships as part of their bid. I urge the Government to implement this proposal, not just nationally but in local councils. I have called for this repeatedly, and I have discussed it with members of Essex Council, who are taking a serious look at it. Read more here.

I am Co-Chair of the All Party Group on Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning and therefore understand the importance of public procurement in addressing the issue of youth unemployment. I am currently in the process of recruiting my new Apprentice for the House of Commons Office.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Fantastic A-Level results at Harlow College

 

As we're rapidly coming to expect from Colin Hindmarch and his team at Harlow College, today we saw another set of outstanding A-level results for 2011.

Harlow College is 
a place of excellence in our town and I’m very proud that we have one 
of the best colleges in England.

As I said earlier, when I heard the results, I wanted to pay tribute to the staff, students, parents and the Principal for 
their hard work in making this year’s A-level results such a success. It will be fascinating to see all the great things that the students go on to do with their lives.

You can see the full story HERE on the Harlow College website.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

The Apprentice Card: Giving Apprentices the same Rights and Benefits as Students

Today in Parliament, at 3:30pm, I will launch the new Apprentice Card with the NUS and many training organisations. I wrote about this today on Conservative Home, and have reproduced the article below:

Today is Vocational Qualifications day, and yet a skills deficit has blighted our economy for many years. Just one in three British workers now qualify as apprentices, or with technical skills. Whereas in France, it is one in two. And Germany are even better, with two out of three workers qualified with proper technical skills.

France and Germany are miles ahead of us, and as a result our workforce is reckoned to be 15 per cent less productive.

One of the worst legacies of the last Government was a generation of young people lost to benefits, or trudging endlessly round a hamster’s wheel of six-month temporary courses.

Despite the billions spent on the New Deal, for example, around 100,000 of those who left school in Tony Blair’s first term never held down a job, and are now in their thirties, having never worked in their lives.

Last year, I wrote on Conservative Home about the tragedy of the one million unemployed young people, left to us by the last Government. The new Government’s plans for 250,000 extra apprenticeships and University Technical Colleges are welcome, as apprenticeships are our best answer to this crisis. But we need to go further.

For apprenticeships to work, we need to change the whole culture, by giving apprentices pride and prestige. And ultimately this means giving them similar rights and benefits to academic students.
I have long-argued that the best method of doing this is through a Royal Society of Apprentices - rather like the Law Society or British Medical Association, with a social and professional network, similar to that provided by Universities. I have tabled this Commons Motion and brought it up on the floor of the Commons.

Since last year, I have been working on the first plank of this with the NUS and private businesses. After many months of work, I am pleased to announce the chance of an exclusive new Apprentice Card for every apprentice, which will be launched at 3.30pm today in the House of Commons.

The Card will finally put apprentices on a level-playing field with academic students and other professions, giving apprentices discounts at high street stores, as well as free support services and legal advice - estimated at a value of £500.

Other benefits are planned for the future, such as social events, mentoring, and careers guidance.

The NUS are supplying the card infrastructure, for a pilot scheme with the training organisations PERA, GTA England, Kaplan, the Association of Accounting Technicians, and Harlow College.

Together they represent tens of thousands of apprentices across the UK, working in companies like JCB, Jaguar Land Rover, Next, and other top British brands.

This Apprentice Card is a small step, but significant nevertheless. It adds to the incentives for becoming an apprentice, and will I hope be the foundation stone of a Royal Society of Apprentices - something I am working towards with the support of John Hayes, the Skills Minister.

Above all, we are fortunate to have a Government that has re-geared all spending onto apprenticeships, and totally scrapped the upfront fees that deterred young people in the past.

In years to come, never again will Britain be the poor man of Europe when it comes to apprenticeships, because we are putting young people on the conveyor belt to jobs and opportunities for the future. Ultimately, that is what the Apprentice Card is all about.


by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Skills Strategy

Today was a really busy time in Westminster.  In the afternoon, I led a debate (which I had called for over many weeks), on the Government's skill strategy.

I discussed my project regarding a Royal Society of Apprentices, set out the need for University Technical Schools and urged reform of the Educational Maintenance Allowance.  I believe EMA should be given to disadvantaged students based on academic  improvement rather than just on attendance. 

My speech also set out the skills strategy in context - looking at the problems we face in Britain.  Vocational training is still seen as secondary to going to University - something that has to change if we are to really succeed on the apprenticeship front.

It was a good discussion and relatively unpartisan. 

You can watch a video HERE.

You can read my debate and the Government's response HERE.

General Election Day Sixteen: The man who applied for 4,700 jobs

I have written recently in a previous blog posting that I recently met a man,who had applied for over 4,000 jobs. The correct figure is in fact 4,700. I mentioned this man to an economic journalist from the Guardian, who interviewed him today at his home in Harlow. It was particularly relevant on a day in which unemployment was confirmed at 2.5 million.

The truth is that jobs are very hard to come by and the job market is tightening as we face the economic abyss. The high taxes, hike in National Insurance Contributions planned by Gordon Brown, and the ever increasing red tape, all act as an anti-stimulant to businesses to create jobs. That is why we have to cut business taxes, reduce NI contributions and make it easier for businesses to hire new employees on a low tax basis. We need to give young people the skills that they want - through apprenticeships and work placements. Above all, we must get the economy back on track, by cutting waste and reducing the deficit.

Wherever I go around and about Harlow, it is jobs that is one of the key issues. Too many people have been made redundant and there are too few employment opportunities available.

P.S. It was another exceptionally hectic Wednesday, starting off with hustings at Harlow College. It was a good debate and quite testing, as the students were asking some tough questions. Many wanted to know about jobs, skills and student funding.

After, I met with Sir Alan Haslehurst, MP for Saffron Walden and a large crew of volunteers. We have been really lucky to have many Saffron Walden volunteers come over to help in recent weeks and months. I then went with my campaign team around Harlow visiting a range of shops from Staple Tye to Hare Street. We were also really pleased to be interviewed by Anglia TV on the campaign trail. A fulfilling day.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com