This week the Prime Minister announced his ambition to build Britain out of the economic global downturn brought on by COVID-19. As many of you will have seen this programme includes a massive focus on developing our education offer by investing further in our schools and colleges across the country. Boris Johnson has announced a ten-year school building programme which will lay the foundations for a country where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.
The first 50 projects have already been backed by a £1 billion investment and we are not wasting time with construction work due to start in September next year. Both existing schools and Further Education (FE) colleges will receive the money they need to transform their offer so students have access to high quality, high tech, fit for purpose facilities. More than this, we’re also offering an ‘opportunity guarantee’ so that every young person has the chance to undertake an apprenticeship or an in-work placement, to develop the skills and confidence they need to find the right job for them. As the Minister responsible, I am looking forward to being able to deliver these changes that will positively impact so many peoples lives.
This work is hugely important in our ambition to level up the country and spread opportunities equally – and improving our national skill-sets will play a pivotal role in our economic recovery post-COVID-19.
These projects will be greener, helping meet the government’s net-zero target, and will focus on modern construction methods to create highly skilled jobs and boost the construction sector.
On the green agenda, this week there was an online climate lobby for MPs that sadly I couldn’t attend due to my commitments at the Department for Education, however, this agenda remains close to my heart and I will continue to work to improve our environmental progress and ambitions. To this end, my team is reorganising our second local climate change summit, which had to be postponed because of the virus, for late summer. I am planning to bring together representatives from our local councils so we as a whole community can brainstorm ideas and implement them to ensure our work on climate change is as comprehensive and impactful as possible. If you wish to attend please do email me to express your interest, [email protected] and you will be sent an invitation to take part when we’ve confirmed all the necessary details.
Lastly, I wanted to remind all of you the campaign to save our brilliant local radio station, Spirit FM. I would be grateful if you haven’t already to head online and join me in signing the petition, www.change.org/p/bauer-media-save-spirit-fm.
