14 TO 19 AGENDA AND THE NORTH EAST

Motion Text

That this House regrets that fewer students aged 14 to 19 years in the North East go into post-compulsory education and lag behind almost all other regions in terms of educational performance; applauds the recent high-level conference held at The Sage Gateshead and sponsored by the Learning and Skills Council, One North East and the Government Office North East, which brought together over 500 representatives from schools, colleges, other learning establishments, local authorities and businesses for the first event of its kind to address the education and skills crisis facing the region in a bid to help North East students catch up with their counterparts around the country; and welcomes this ground-breaking conference as the first stage of a long-term process aimed at boosting the performance of young people through collaboration between institutions and employers and assessing how this improvement can be shaped to respond to the needs of the regional economy so that the North East can compete nationally and internationally.