No time to cut skills training

Unemployment figures in Stourbridge have leapt by 120% since April 2008. Regional managers of Job Centre Plus told Margot James, Conservative Candidate for Stourbridge, that the town had recorded the second highest rise in unemployment, after Brownhills, across 14 areas west of Birmingham.

Stourbridge is faring considerably worse than other areas. The increase in unemployment over the same period for Dudley was 68% for example.

At the same time the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) have cut back on funding for training and apprenticeships. ‘Train to Gain,’ the government’s flagship training programme has been substantially reduced for next year, so much so that Colleges will not be able to take on new entrants on to the Train to Gain programme once current students have completed their courses.

Margot James, who met regional directors of Job Centre Plus this week to discuss ways of helping unemployed people back in to work, said “the Government’s mishandling of the skills training agenda is going from bad to worse, unemployment is rising faster in the West Midlands than in any other part of the country and in Stourbridge we are facing the second highest increase west of Birmingham, it is no time to be cutting the Train to Gain budget locally”.