APPRENTICESHIPS are vital to the future of the region as a top tourist destination and hub of the renewable energy industry, North East industry chiefs were told yesterday.
National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) chairman Simon Waugh attended an event at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, which focused on developing the region’s tourism sector.
The event, Tourism: Past, Present and Future, attracted around 100 delegates, including employers from businesses of all sizes in the tourism sector in the North East, among them hoteliers and restaurateurs.
Waugh said that apprenticeships were important to companies looking both to recruit staff or developing their existing workforce.
“There is a preconception that apprenticeships can only be found in areas such as engineering. However, ensuring new blood is introduced to areas like travel and tourism is of vital importance,” he said. “The North East is quite rightly regarded as one of this country’s cultural centres, but quite often employers struggle to find staff with the right kind of skills and local knowledge.
“We hope to work closer with the region’s tourism bodies to help employers realise the benefits of the apprenticeship programme.”
The NAS has teamed up with The Journal to spearhead the 100 Apprentices in 100 Days campaign, which is designed to promote the value of apprenticeships to businesses across the North East.
Supported by the North East Chamber of Commerce and many of the region’s training providers, the campaign aims to get North East companies to take on at least 100 apprentices over 100 days as a way of helping to create employment for the many people struggling to find work in the current economic climate.
Waugh has held a number of senior roles during his career, including deputy managing director of Lloyds Bank Insurance Services and chief executive of financial adviser AWD Chase De Vere.
Currently, he is also chairman of Sparks children’s charity, and a life fellow of both the Marketing Society and the Institute of Direct Marketing.
Another area which he sees as a core area for apprenticeships is the development of the region’s low-carbon economy.
With advancing technology resulting in a need for new skills among the region’s engineers, he believes that apprenticeships provide the perfect solution.
He said: “There are currently around 4,000 engineers working in the UK’s green energy sector, but by 2020 we will need around 20,000 if we are to fully realise the potential of this growing market.
“Two of the Government’s biggest investments are going to be in skills and green energy, and it’s clear that the two can work in hand to help get the economy to where it needs to be.
“In addition, overseas firms are becoming more and more concerned about their responsibilities to the environment and are much more likely to want to set up a factory in the North East or build up relationships with companies in the region, if the next generation of skilled labour is already available.”
