Margot James, MP for Stourbridge, has officially opened Stourbridge College's Black Country Skills Shop run by Stourbridge College's employer training arm, Business Skills as part of the National Skills Academy for Retail.

The Black Country Skills Shop is only one of two National Skills Academy for Retail shops in the West Midlands, with the other based in Solihull. It is run in partnership with Worcester and Shrewsbury Colleges, Jobcentre Plus and Westfield, who provide the premises.

Margot said: "I am delighted to have officially opened the Black Country Skills Shop. Equipping people with the right skills to gain employment and then succeed in their chosen careers is absolutely vital, and in years gone by we have not always seen enough emphasis placed on the value of vocational training. It's extremely impressive to see the extent of the work being done in our area by the college, its training arm, Business Skills, and the other local partners it has forged links with and I am very pleased to be supporting this new initiative."