Alison Hume

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Christopher, and I will be brief. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) on securing this important debate and for her excellent speech. To improve living standards, we need to generate economic growth; to generate economic growth, businesses must have the skilled workforces they need to thrive. Further education institutions play a vital role in training the workforce we need for the jobs of the future. In my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby, we have some brilliant further education institutions that play a critical role in training young people with the skills they need, such as Scarborough university technical college. Just last week, Scarborough UTC hosted Jürgen Maier—the chief executive officer of publicly owned clean energy company GB Energy—on a visit to its new Mainprize suite. The suite, named after a local service vessel company, will link employers with students to support them in their studies by providing valuable real-world knowledge and expertise to prepare them for careers in the renewables sector. Offshore wind is a huge opportunity for Scarborough, and Scarborough UTC is a great example of how further education colleges can tap into opportunities to drive local economic growth, as well as provide career pathways. However, we need to ensure that young people in our most deprived communities have access to these new educational opportunities. Scarborough is the most deprived borough in North Yorkshire, and is rated in the lowest 30% of lower-tier local authorities in England, with three LSOAs—lower layer super output areas—within the most deprived 1% in the country. Further education colleges in my constituency need the support of this Government to ensure that disadvantaged students can access good careers, and I would be grateful if the Minister outlined how the Government plan to work with local authorities and further education institutions to support pathways for disadvantaged students into high-skilled work.