Rachael Maskell: Devolution is key to York passing the skills test

We are conscious that we are falling behind as other economies accelerate, such as those of London and the South East. There is the North-South divide, but there is now an East-West divide, too, because of the progress being made in Manchester with the devolved settlement.

That is why it is so important that we move forward on all devolution issues, not least skills.

York’s economy has changed massively over the years. We had a strong industrial base in the confectionary industry and in rail manufacturing, but that has really reduced.

The low-wage, low-skilled economy has taken over. We have a very high cost of living but very low wages – some of the lowest in Yorkshire. There is real disparity, which causes pressure and mismatches in our city, where the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors dominate.

I have talked to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Greg Clark) about the urgent need to address the skills deficit in the city.

I have been out talking to businesses across the city; they consistently raise that mismatch – particularly the fact that business and IT skills do not come into the economy, and that schools do not prepare children for the modern world ​of work.

Last Friday, I visited York St John University, which wants to help to address the skills gap.

I have also visited York College, an outstanding college in my constituency that understands the challenges of the local economy.

I want to raise the issue of co-ordination. Businesses, schools, colleges and local enterprise partnerships need to come to one place to discuss the real needs of the economy and how to address skills gaps.

I will give a couple of quick examples of that. Engineering is a really important part of York, which is a rail city, but the university offers courses in electrical engineering only.

Although the city council has identified rail engineering as part of the footprint, we are not providing the skills in the city for that. The National Railway Museum is about to embark on a new project for a gallery about the future of engineering, to engage girls and boys across the city and the country, but if we cannot follow through on ensuring the learning, that future cannot be delivered.

The digital creative sector is another part of our footprint where there is not that connectivity. There are fantastic facilities and there is a university course, and there are business start-ups, but after that, people have to move out of the local area.

We need to be able to grow those skills right through to development and address the real gaps in the economy.

The same goes for the bio and agri-tech sectors, where the gap needs to be bridged between academia and applied research. There are real gaps.

We need to be careful about how we balance skills acquisition. Clearly, we see a national education service as important in allowing people to enter the economy at different points in their learning and drive those skills forward, whether from the workplace or from school. We need to make sure that we strike the fine balance between addressing national and local needs in the economy.

There are real challenges in schools. We are not preparing our kids for the world of work young enough. They learn how to pass exams, but not about the life skills that are needed.

Business talks about children being “screen deep” in IT skills, but not having the skills needed for the digital economy. T-level assessments have real problems, particularly for agriculture, because the assessments have to take place at a particular time of year, but the agriculture sector revolves around the seasons.

Tree surgery, for instance, needs to be done at an appropriate time, not at a time that kills trees. I put that on the Minister’s desk to address. We have real opportunities to engage schools in acquiring the skills that the economy needs for the future.

We desperately need a review of the curriculum to ensure that we are addressing those needs, starting at primary school.

Rachael Maskell is the Labour MP for York Central who spoke in a Parliamentary debate on skills devolution. This is an edited version.