Category: Skills

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North East LEP launches North East Ambition

Every student at every school and college in the North East will have access to world-leading careers guidance as part of a new initiative by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

North East Ambition, launching on Friday 14 July, will support North East schools and colleges in the region to adopt, implement and achieve the Good Career Guidance benchmarks; eight clearly defined benchmarks for high quality careers education that improve students’ transition from school to work by appropriately preparing them for their next stage.

A key part of the North East LEP’s refreshed strategic economic plan, North East Ambition follows the hugely successful Good Career Guidance benchmarks pilot, which saw sixteen schools and colleges in the North East LEP area trial the implementation of the benchmarks identified by Sir John Holman and the Gatsby Foundation.

Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director at the North East LEP said:

North East Ambition is about ensuring every single student in the North East can make fully informed decisions about their futures and identify routes into a successful working life.

We want to create 100,000 more and better jobs by 2024 and improving access to employment or training for our region’s young people is key to making that happen.

North East Ambition will support all students, including those who are the most vulnerable and those with special educational needs. This initiative brings education, business and other stakeholders together to deliver effective and innovative careers education fit for the 21st Century.

North East Ambition builds on the success of the Good Career Guidance benchmarks pilot in the North East LEP region, which has been recognised nationally as ‘transformational’. Improving outcomes for all young people, regardless of their starting points or backgrounds, and inspiring pioneering practice in schools and colleges, the pilot has gained significant national traction.

North East Ambition will ensure all schools and colleges across the North East can benefit from adopting the benchmarks.

The launch event on Friday 14 July will hear from Andrew Hodgson, Chair of the North East LEP, Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director at the North East LEP and leading figures from education and business.

Michelle continued:

As well as sharing best practice and examples from the Good Career Guidance benchmarks pilot, we’ll also be looking at current labour market trends and intelligence, the practical support and resources available to help schools and colleges deliver North East Ambition and the latest guidance on careers education.

We want to inspire schools, colleges, other stakeholders and the business community to join us in transforming the quality of careers provision across our region and ensuring a brighter future for all of our young people.

The launch of North East Ambition takes place at Crowne Plaza Newcastle on Friday 14 July. Attendance is free and places can be booked online.

Home / Skills / Page 19

Scaleup and grow: North East LEP seeks entrepreneurs for mentoring programme

Entrepreneurs looking to grow and scale their business are being sought for the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP’s) Growth through Mentoring programme.

Six months after launching, a bank of experienced North East business leaders are ready and waiting to act as mentors for business owners keen to learn from others’ experiences.

Companies experiencing rapid growth or rapid growth potential need to learn to cope quickly with changing demands, but many find it hard to develop their managerial and leadership talent while their organisations are growing so fast.

It can also be lonely at the top and having someone to talk to outside of the business, that recognises and understands these challenges, can be invaluable.

The programme is led by North East LEP Mentoring Co-ordinator Helen Lee, who matches mentors with mentees based on each person’s individual skills and experience.

Helen said:

The programme is off to a great start with mentors actively working with North East businesses with high growth ambition.  Importantly, all the mentors we’re working with have first hand experience of growing and scaling business. There is a phenomenal range and depth of experience within our pool of mentors and the pool is growing.  If you are the leader of a growing business and would like to be matched with a mentor, we want to hear from you.

These mentors can help people to gain the skills and knowledge required to scaleup their businesses, which is vital for the growth of the regional economy and an important part of the North East LEP’s Strategic Economic Plan for the North East.

Pamela Petty, ex Managing Director of family-run business Ebac, is participating in Growth through Mentoring as a mentor and has been matched with Sam Wass, from the Great British Meat Company. Pamela added:

I’m really passionate about the North East, and feel that if I can help grow the economy by sharing my experience then I should.

I love people that are passionate about what they do, so working with people like Sam is a pleasure.

Sam Wass, Director of the Great British Meat Company, has benefited from Pamela’s background in manufacturing and selling online. The company is an online butcher, which has taken a traditional business diversifying into digital retail. As a result, they are currently on target to increase revenues by 50% this year.

Sam said:

After just one session I knew I had a good and positive match and in fact we’ve already honed in on an issue that we are likely to focus on.

It really helps when there are lots of comparable experiences, and your mentor has the same mindset as you – for us that’s in terms of manufacturing. I’m looking forward to continuing with the programme and seeing where this dedicated support takes the company next.

More details are available on the Growth through Mentoring webpage.

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Growing our Digital Future

We are working closely with Accenture to encourage schools to participate in their Digital Skills programme – a free initiative for schools to help students enhance their experiences of digital communications.

Thanks to Ryan Gibson, Facilitator for the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot, for this blog about digital careers in the North East, and the many reasons why teachers should encourage students to participate in the programme.

I wonder if like me, you have often heard phrases such as the ‘digital economy’, ‘digital literacy’ or ‘digital community’ but not really taken the time to reflect on what these actually mean, their impact on economic growth, the prosperity of the region, more and better jobs and the implications for how we prepare young people to enter and thrive in an ever changing labour market.

A North East of England Chamber of Commerce survey in 2015 found that 66% of businesses believed that education was not effectively preparing young people for work. The House of Lords have stated that digital skills should be taught as a third core subject, valued as important as achievement in Maths and English.

How many of us now check the news using an app on our phone, connect with friends and family on facebook, use internet banking, shop online, follow people on twitter or connect with them on LinkedIn. When reflecting on your own professional role, I wonder if you recognise similar things to me? I am increasingly working with platforms such as Google Docs and Dropbox, collecting, collating, presenting and evaluating big data, tweeting, using LinkedIn, using Skype and writing blogs! It is challenging isn’t it and certainly something I was not prepared for. I had to learn as I went, picking up bits and pieces from colleagues who seemed to have mastered this whole new world.

Businesses, and especially SMEs, report that digital skills are becoming essential in all areas of work, regardless of the sector. Indeed a quick glance at online job posts and vacancy websites reinforces the growing demand for digitally competent individuals. While it is not possible to predict exactly what digital skills a young person may need in the future, it is important that we work to ensure that they can evidence a level of digital skills that will appeal to an employer – ensuring that they are both prepared and equipped to take advantage of better job opportunities.

So what exactly are those job opportunities in the North East. Well, take a look at our refreshed Strategic Economic Plan for the region. The North East digital community is one of the most vibrant, productive and rapidly developing in the UK.

With over 29,000 IT and digital employees working in the region and a further 15,250 creative industries employees, we have a technology industry valued at £2 billion – part of a northern ICT economy worth £12 billion. And isn’t it fantastic that the Headquarters of FTSE 100 listed software leader, Sage, shared service centres for HP, BT, Accenture and IBM are all located in the North East.

There is also a fantastic network of business support organisations operating here in the region, which I will talk about in a future blog.

So, with fantastic opportunities comes a key challenge – how can we better prepare and equip each and every young person with the digital skills they need to take advantage of job opportunities and thrive in this hotbed of digital activity? We are delighted to support Accenture’s ‘Digital Skills’ programme, as it’s a fantastic way of doing just that.

This free online course, designed by Accenture, is available to 16+ year olds and focuses on six modules:

  • Digital fundamentals
  • Social media
  • Digital marketing
  • User Experience
  • Mobility
  • Analytics

These six units can be integrated into sixth form / college curriculum or can be studied by students in their own time and at their own pace. The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) uses the Future Learn platform to deliver an innovative social learning approach, supported with over 90 bitesize videos and individualised assessments to recognize achievement. On completion, students receive an Accenture ‘digital badge’, accrediting and validating their learning and allowing them to evidence their skills to employers across the region.

As an educator, I can’t help but see how beneficial this could be on a student’s UCAS, apprenticeship or job application form and how important it is to help young people build their professional online profile. With 27% growth in digital salaries in the North East, over 1500 current vacancies in the region, a projected 745000 more workers needed with digital skills by the end of 2017 and 49% of SMEs saying they lack workers with basic digital skills – can we really afford not to take advantage of such amazing opportunities?

If you think that your students could benefit from this free programme, please contact dawn.bewick@nelep.co.uk by the end of June. Sign up now and be ready to begin the course in September.

Home / Skills / Page 19

North East LEP initiative supports students with special educational needs into the workplace

Children and young people from Northumberland with a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities are being given valuable experience of the world of work thanks to the North East LEP’s Enterprise Adviser initiative.

Students at Cleaswell Hill School, Choppington, Northumberland, will be undertaking work placements and hearing direct from businesses about jobs in the North East economy thanks to the school’s involvement with newly appointed Enterprise Adviser, Keith Nicholson, General Manager of the sustainable development company, Earth Balance.

Keith is the latest North East business leader to join the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Enterprise Adviser initiative, which seeks to improve careers education in schools and colleges and support them in working towards the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks, a national pilot scheme led by the North East LEP to improve the quality of careers advice.

Keith Nicholson, General Manager of Earth Balance said:

Physical and mental disability should not be a barrier to employment. That’s a really important message we need to send to young people and employers.

I’m looking forward to working with the staff and students at Cleaswell Hill School to show them the opportunities available to them in their area. I want students to have a realistic picture of what it’s like to work in different sectors so they can make an educated choice about their future.

I’ll also be working with businesses to dispel some of the myths around employing someone with a disability.

Emma Steele, Sixth Form Cluster Leader at Cleaswell Hill School, said:

Working with Keith and Earth Balance has been a fantastic experience so far as we’ve been able to introduce the students to a range of different employers and open their eyes to a host of different careers.

Giving them experience of a real life work environment will be really important in creating and raising aspirations. This experience could be the start of future career for many of our students.

Cleaswell Hill School provides specialist education for children and young people aged four to 19 with a range of complex needs and disabilities. Its key aim is to equip students with the skills, knowledge and experience needed to live and work in society with the highest level of independence as possible, contributing and caring for one another.

It provides support and guidance to help overcome the barriers that may have affected many students’ progress in the past.

In addition to Emma’s role at Cleaswell Hill School, she also chairs the SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) Working Group, a partnership between the North East LEP and a range of public, private and charity organisatons that work to ensure young people with special educational needs and disabilities can access quality careers advice and benefit from the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks in their schools.

Lindsey Peek, Enterprise Coordinator at the North East LEP said:

One of the aims of the SEND Working Group is to address the potential barriers to work for young people and how, as a group, we can find innovative solutions to those problems.

Our Enterprise Advisers are helping that work by championing their positive experiences of working with SEND Schools to the business community. Keith is the perfect Enterprise Adviser to partner with Cleaswell Hill School. Not only is his business based in the area, he has a real commitment to ensure all young people, not matter what their physical or mental ability, have access to the same opportunities and experiences. We share his belief that everyone should be able to achieve his or her career aspirations.

Enterprise Advisers bridge the gap between business and education, ensuring schools and colleges provide the best possible careers advice and students have an excellent understanding of the opportunities available to them in the North East.

The initiative also supports schools and colleges in delivering the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks; eight clearly defined benchmarks for high quality and effective careers guidance. The pilot in the North East LEP region has proved so successful the benchmarks are expected to form part of Government’s new statutory guidance for schools in delivering careers advice. The North East LEP also hopes to expand the scheme to include Primary schools.

The North East LEP’s Enterprise Adviser programme has been running since December 2015. Part of a national initiative developed by The Careers and Enterprise Company, Enterprise Advisers work in partnership with enterprise coordinators to support schools and colleges to navigate the range of possible employer interactions and to help them create a whole school strategy for careers, enterprise and employer engagement.

Find out more about the Enterprise Adviser Network and register your interest.

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Celebrating success: The Enterprise Adviser Network

The North East LEP’s Enterprise Adviser Network connects senior business leaders with schools and colleges, working closely with their senior leadership team to develop and drive a careers strategy that helps young people gain more experience of the world of work and have meaningful encounters with employers.

Lindsey Peek, North East LEP Enterprise Co-ordinator, gives an update on the Network’s success so far:

We’ve had an excellent response from the region’s schools, colleges and businesses since we started the North East’s Enterprise Adviser Network in 2015.

 

To date we’ve partnered 45 Enterprise Advisers with 45 schools and colleges across the North East, and we’re looking to achieve more. We’re proud to have some of the region’s most influential business leaders involved, representing a range of different sectors.

 

They include Giselle Stewart, Director of Corporate Affairs at video game company Ubisoft Reflections, Sophie Pickup, ‎Learning & Development Manager at Northumbrian Water Group and Jen Chamley, Community Engagement Manager at Capita Property & Infrastructure Ltd.

 

Other leading organisations to join our Enterprise Adviser Network initiative include Barclays, British Engines, Bellway Homes, Unipres, ORE Catapult, Accenture, Printed.com and Campus North.

 

The role of the Enterprise Adviser is to bridge the gap between business and education and create a whole school or college strategy for careers, enterprise and employer engagement. From routes to employment and interview skills to work experience and apprenticeships, students learn about the many career opportunities available to them in the North East and educators develop a better understanding of the local economy, which improves the quality of the careers advice and guidance they can provide to students.

 

Creating a meaningful link between education and business has greatly improved student’s understanding of the labour market and helped the business community access a talented and enthusiastic future workforce who will build the economy of tomorrow.

 

Just one example of the success of our Enterprise Adviser Network initiative is Churchill Community College’s partnership with Accenture.

Karen Marshall, Apprentice, Education and Engagement Lead at Accenture, introduced students to a range of careers-themed events including career speed dating, interactive careers fairs, mock interview events and assemblies. Karen, in partnership with Churchill Community College, also delivered an innovative Assessment Centre simulation exercise for Year 13 students to equip them with experience of a real life work situation. Accenture put the whole year group through the selection process offering guidance on CV writing before taking 40 students for a full assessment centre experience. Many of the college’s GSCE students have also met curriculum targets as part of site visits involving Accenture staff.

 

The Northumberland Church of England Academy’s partnership with ORE Catapult has been citied as an example of best practice by education experts.

As well as taking part in the Academy’s World of Work Day, which sees over 50 leading employers and learning providers give students an insight into a range of different careers, ORE Catapult has also provided work experience opportunities and one to one mentoring. Mark Fox, Careers and Employability Manager at Northumberland Church of England Academy and Tony Quinn, Operations Director at ORE Catapult will be continuing to work together to provide students with unique career guidance and development experiences.

 

To highlight some of the fantastic work being delivered as part of the initiative, we’ve produced a series of videos featuring some of the schools taking part.

Sam Mcloughlin at Studio West School, Newcastle upon Tyne, shared his first-hand experience of the benefits that come from working with an Enterprise Adviser. You can view the video here:

Studio West

We’re still looking for schools and colleges across the North East to join our Enterprise Adviser Network Initiative and partner with leading businesses on a journey to improve careers education and guidance for young people in the region.

 

If you’d like to find out more, please contact me or one my colleagues:

Lindsey Peek
lindsey.peek@nelep.co.uk

Denis Heaney
denis.heaney@nelep.co.uk

Andrew Mills
andrew.mills@nelep.co.uk

We look forward to working with you

Lindsey Peek
Enterprise Co-ordinator, Enterprise Adviser Programme at the North East LEP

Home / Skills / Page 19

Youth employment officer – North East region

Leonard Cheshire Disability is recruiting for a Youth Employment Officer, to be based partly from the North East LEP offices and partly from home.

About Leonard Cheshire Disability

Leonard Cheshire Disability is one of the world’s leading charities for disabled people. We believe that disabled people should have the freedom to live their lives the way they choose – with the opportunity and support to live independently, to contribute economically and to participate fully in society.

Salary and benefits

£27,042 per annum (expenses costs also covered)

Working hours

Full time contract, 35 hours per week (Pilot contract initially agreed till September 2018)

Find out more

To find out more, and apply online, visit the website.

Closing date: Wednesday 17 May

Home / Skills / Page 19

A lesson in employer engagement

Representatives from three North East schools and colleges visited School 21 in London to find out about the school’s innovative approach to employer engagement. The visit built on the progress the schools and colleges have already achieved as part of the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks, which are being piloted in the North East and which aim to transform careers guidance in schools.

School 21 is known for having developed strong links with local employers, with each of its students completing practical work placements, during which they work on a solution to a real workplace project.

Leanne Johnston, Assistant Headteacher at The King Edward VI School in Morpeth was one of the attendees.

The team at School 21 really are inspirational and I had heard from them at various events, so as soon as the opportunity to visit came around, I wanted to go.

As soon as you enter the school you get the impression it’s something different and you can’t help but feel inspired when you go there. The biggest thing for me was speaking to the students. They are confident, eloquent and spoke really well.

At School 21, students typically study for eight GCSEs: one or two fewer than most schools. This is to prioritise the school’s additional activities, including those around employability.

Year 10 students complete two work placements across the academic year – every Wednesday afternoon they are on placement. The students get a mid-placement appraisal, as well as an exit appraisal from their employer which adds to the real experience; it replicates performance management protocols and also allows impact to be measured.

While on placement, students are working towards the completion of a project or brief which has been set by the employer, which makes it different from traditional ‘shadowing’ type of work experience.

We met some of the staff at the school who explained that, when it comes to pitching requests to businesses, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach – partnerships need to be nurtured and may take a while to develop.

A lot of the principles which School 21 use in terms of employer engagement we use too, here in the North East, but our situations are very different – for example our location and number of students – we share a lot of principles but in a different context.

The visit was organised in conjunction with The Edge Foundation, an independent education charity which works to raise the status of technical and professional education.

Olly Newton, Director of Policy and Research at The Edge Foundation, said:

It was a fascinating visit. As well as seeing some of the amazing work the students had produced during their projects, we also heard about the school’s approach to project-based learning and met some year 10 students who were really engaging.

The school places a big emphasis on ‘oracy’, highlighting that oral communication skills are as important as written communication, and this really came across when talking to the students about their work placements.

One of the main lessons was how to really engage employers in the life of the school, using specific projects where young people are delivering something back to the business. By taking on a business problem, the placement is delivering a new solution for the business as well as developing the workforce of the future. It’s an alternative to the more usual CSR perspective for offering a work placement.

Find out more about the Good Careers Guidance Benchmarks which are being piloted in the North East.

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Sharing good practice with national leaders in learning

It’s been a great year for our skills programme; we’ve really seen our plans start to come to fruition, and have received local, regional and national recognition from government and other organisations for the pioneering activities we’re delivering. Good career guidance for people of all ages is just one of our areas of focus, and with the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot at the centre of this, we’ve seen impressive results, great examples of collaboration and a real sense of cohesion in this space.

We’re very proud that practitioners and school groups from across the country are reaching out to us and wanting to visit our region to see the pilot in action.

Here, our pilot lead, Ryan Gibson, tells us about the recent visit from the Ark Schools Group, who were interested in finding out more about our implementation of the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot:

When I was appointed to lead the national pilot, looking to improve the quality of careers guidance for all young people, I was not only tasked with supporting schools and colleges in the region but to build a model that could potentially be replicated in every area of the country. To do this, we needed to test the benchmarks in action and work directly with schools and colleges to understand the strengths of their current provision and enable them to devise actions that would drive rapid, sustained and measurable improvement.

At the North East LEP we have started to pilot various approaches as to how we can share learning with others across the country who wish to improve the quality of their careers provision. We have explored and developed various models, including visits and practice-sharing events and recently hosted a learning visit from 12 schools from across the country who are members of the Ark Academies Trust.

Hannah McAuley from Ark provides an insight below:

At Ark schools, we have a mission to ensure that every one of our students will access the university or career of their choice.

As a central university and careers team we have always worked with a range of different partners to provide skills development opportunities, financial bursaries, access to role models and engagement with a host of businesses and universities, but of late we have been grappling with how we can ensure that the vital work that is done in schools to prepare young people for their next steps is the same no matter which Ark school you attend.

Last month, I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of 12 colleagues from across Ark schools to visit those taking part in the Career Benchmarks pilot in the North East. Meeting with the North East LEP and the community driving this work was an extraordinary experience for us and there are a few key lessons that we have taken away:

  • The importance of shared language: If 2015 was the year of the selfie and 2016 of post trust then I am pleased to announce that ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’ is well on its way to be the new phrase of choice for 2017! Every business leader, teacher, careers leader and university we met had aligned themselves behind the Gatsby language. This not only created shared expectation, but started to build community of purpose amongst this diverse group of stakeholders. Even after the first day we found that by adopting the language we were better able to articulate the challenges we are facing with this work in our own schools and use it to develop our actions for the future.
  • No careers lead is an island: While it was clear that the careers lead was the central spine driving the work in each school, partnership and a supportive senior leadership team was clearly fundamental to its success. Investing in strategic and lasting partnership work with businesses, colleges and universities provided a richness to the conversations on all sides about what we were preparing students for. This was complemented by a staff body who were bought in to the framework and whose leadership team understood how all school roles were being deployed to support this work.
  • Meaningful over many encounters: A relentless focus on making existing work more impactful meant that pilot schools were not overwhelming themselves or their students with numerous activities. Led by the North East LEP, there is a relentless focus on making existing work in the region much more impactful. One of our group called this process “Squeezing the maximum value” out of every activity and engagement”. For us at Ark, this was the understanding that it isn’t enough to just send a student out to a workplace if you don’t scaffold the experience and help them to learn from it. This is something that we expect in every lesson we teach and the same principles should be applied to any experience we provide for our students.

There is no doubt that being involved in the pilot has been transformational for the schools and colleges in the North East. What I found most inspiring was how the career benchmarks framework had brought alignment between purpose and process.

Every school leader and teacher wants the best possible future for their students, but so often, this work can feel intangible. Whilst the Gatsby benchmarks don’t necessarily tell us how to achieve this work, they force us to have high expectations and set out what it is we need to achieve. I have no doubt that over time; these benchmarks will transform the way schools prepare students for life beyond school.

Hannah McAuley is Head of University and Careers Success at Ark Schools. Ark is an international charity, transforming lives through education. In the UK, Ark has a network of 35 schools, educating more than 21,000 pupils with a mission to ensure that every young person can access the university or career of their choice. These schools are all non-selective and in areas where they can make the biggest difference.

Home / Skills / Page 19

Voluntary sector is vitally important for economic growth

At a recent LEP Employment and Skills Board meeting, the importance of the third sector to our sustainable economic growth was again brought home to me.

Board member Carol Botten, deputy chief executive of VONNE, reinforced how voluntary organisations are changing, adapting to a world where business acumen is a priority as grant funding becomes scarce.

More of their income is derived from delivering contracts and services with an emphasis on being commercially focused and sustainable to ensure future viability.

Carol played a leading role in refreshing the employability and social inclusion section of our new Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), to better recognise the job and wealth creation value of our third sector to the North East economy.

Voluntary organisations often reach out to those people deemed by some to be ‘unemployable’.

Using their care and expertise, they are helping the North East LEP and its other partners implement the SEP’s employability and social inclusion agenda on the ground.

Strengthening our employment rate is crucial to sustainable economic growth, and for those on the margins of society, finding meaningful employment is a fundamental route out of poverty and exclusion.

Newly released Third Sector Trends Data for 2017 underlines the economic importance of voluntary organisations and their activity. Figures show there are 7,000 formal voluntary groups based in our region.

They employ 37,500 full-time equivalent employees. Across the whole of the North of England, the third sector is a larger employer than the finance and insurance industry.

Its value to the North East economy through salaries is estimated at £750m.

A growing number of third sector organisations are experiencing rapid growth, such as Changing Lives in Gateshead.

Back in 2006 it was a North East focused employer of 84 people with a £2.2m turnover.

Fast forward just over a decade and it works with disadvantaged people from the Midlands to Berwick, with 465 staff on its books and a turnover of £16.3m.

As my fellow board member Paul Varley tells me, profit is no longer a dirty word in the third sector.

Paul is chair of Northern Rights, an acclaimed social enterprise managed by local people helping the disadvantaged find work.

Taking surplus profits and investing them into doing even more good through the core services they deliver well, means charities reach more people who need their help.

The North East LEP and its partners have set the region the bold target of creating 100,000 more and better jobs over the next seven years.

In doing so, we recognise the growing contribution of organisations such as the Tyne Gateway Trust, its sharp business acumen creating the revenue to be able to invest into the business and grow.

Pauline Wonders, the trust’s strategic director, and her team work with the long-term unemployed, people whose self-confidence has been shattered to the point where some don’t consider themselves worthy of work.

Her team of 24 staff – all of whom were previously unemployed themselves – connect with people, nurture their self-esteem and give them the tools to start their own community enterprises or support them into sustained work.

Inspiring, important activity with real economic value.

Andrew Hodgson,

North East LEP Chair.