New data shows that 600 Apprenticeships have been delivered in Bedford & Kempston in the last year, up 70% on the previous year.

Richard, who recently visited Ultra Precision Engineering in Kempston, where they have just taken on two new apprentices from the Bedford Training Group, said that the record rise in apprenticeship numbers shows commitment to helping employers train the skilled workers they need to build a stronger, growing economy. He added that companies like Ultra Precision Engineering are providing a vital role in skills development.

He was also delighted with the Government’s announcement that it will offer cash bonuses to employers for taking on an apprentice aged between 16 and 24 and urges companies in Bedford and Kempston to take up this opportunity.

For more information on apprenticeships, please visit this link.

Richard presented awards to two local schools at Tesco on Riverfield Drive, Bedford, as part of the 10^th anniversary of the ‘Tesco for Schools and Clubs’ initiative.

The Hills Lower School and Hazeldene Lower School – where Richard was a formal pupil – were represented by children and teachers from the schools, who were awarded goodies by Richard, on behalf of Tesco, to take back to the classroom. Vouchers were collected by the schools, parents and children and then exchanged for equipment, such as digital cameras, to be used across the school curriculum.

Richard Fuller, MP for Bedford and Kempston, has welcomed the news of improved GCSE results from Bedford Borough’s Upper schools.

Richard said:
“I congratulate the improved performance of schools in Bedford and Kempston at GCSE on the key standard of 5+ GSCEs at grades A* to C, including Maths and English, and in particular the strong double digit improvements at Hastingsbury, Mark Rutherford and Wootton and the strong improvement at Bedford Academy, continuing its progress for four consecutive years.

“I also congratulate the students for all their achievements and hard work over the last two years and wish them all the best for their futures.”

Richard with Jake Marsden (PV Installer) at Carillion

Bedford MP Richard Fuller has praised local company, Carillion Energy Services for its commitment to training and apprenticeships.

The MP was keen to see how the company was creating sustainable jobs in Bedford and the impact that this was having upon skills in the area.

Mr Fuller met senior managers and also had the opportunity to speak first hand with renewable installation engineer, Jake Marsden who gained vital training on the installation of solar photovoltaic panels at the Academy and qualified fully in October 2010.

Richard said: “I was really pleased to see first hand the scale of the Training Academy and I am particularly proud that Carillion Energy Services have chosen to use Bedford as the location for their UK Training Academy. Green Skills and employment are vital to the development of both the local and wider economy and here in Bedford, we are actively involved in developing these.”

Carillion Energy Services are at the forefront of the low carbon economy and have a strong commitment to the training of apprentices on eco-skills such as heating, insulation and renewable technologies particularly solar photo voltaic. In 2010, the wider Carillion group sponsored 2500 apprentices across the business.

Graham Tidball, Director of Contracting, “We were really pleased to welcome Mr Fuller to the Training Academy and see first hand the excellent facilities that we have. We have had over 150 trainees attend Solar Photo Voltaic training through the Academy and many of these have now gone on to work on our Clean Energy Programme which installs Solar Photovoltaic on the properties of Housing Associations at no extra cost to the tenant, but can result in financial savings to the householder as well as making a real climate change impact. We believe that there are genuine opportunities in this sector which is why we are committed to building what we call a green collar workforce – here in Bedford and indeed throughout our business.”

On the 5th July, I spoke at Bedford Academy’s ‘Sod Turning Ceremony’. Here is the full text of the speech I gave:

“We meet today, not only to celebrate a building, but to celebrate education.

Today, this day, let us celebrate the great futures that the Bedford Academy will nurture, shape and strengthen.”

Richard was guest of honour at the “Sod Turning Ceremony” for the new Bedford Academy building on Tuesday (5th July). The funds for the new academy building were secured by Richard last year.

In his speech to the students, teachers and sponsors, he said:-

“Today, we commit ourselves, not only to the education of every student, but to each year of schooling. We recognise that each child only gets one chance at each year of their education.

We commit ourselves that the quest for higher standards is not only a long term discussion, but an urgent priority for today, where failure to perform demands leadership and action so that not one single year of any child’s education is wasted.”

The school thanked Richard by baking a delicious cake (pictured above)!

Richard recently became a Scout Leader for the day as 28 Cub Scouts, from across the UK – including members of our own Brickhill Cub Scouts – held the first ever Pack meeting at the Palace of Westminster. The event was part of The Scout Association’s drive to promote the benefits of volunteering to adults.

A collection of MPs worked with 12 adult leaders from around the UK for Volunteers’ Week. They helped the Cubs enjoy a number of activities including setting up a camp and going on an indoor expedition. (See below for video)

The benefits that volunteering has had on the lives of the adult leaders present was clear to all the MPs. Many of the leaders at the meeting only joined Scouting in the last two years.

Every week Scout leaders develop skills such as planning, organising, communication, and teamwork while running a range of activities for young people aged between 6 and 18. These skills can in turn be transferred to the workplace.

Leading the meeting was Jenny Thorp a teacher at Latymer All Saints Primary School in North London and leader at 4th Enfield Scout Group. Having worked previously as a personal trainer, Jenny used her Scouting experience and skills to secure a place on the Graduate Teacher Programme and gain her first teaching position.

She said:

“Getting involved in Scouting is one of the best things I’ve ever done. Whether it’s leading a camp or planning an activity, you’re constantly being challenged. When I decided to change career paths and become a teacher, the skill-set I’d developed in Scouting was the key to getting a place on the Graduate Teacher Programme.

“Volunteering has helped me bring new ideas, confidence and creativity to my teaching methods. This doesn’t just apply to being a teacher though; almost everyone needs strong interpersonal and planning skills in their job nowadays.”

Patrick, a Cub Scout at the meeting, said:

“The MPs made great Scout leaders and I really hope they sign up to do more volunteering as well as encouraging other people do the same.”

Through Scouting, adults also play an important role in their community, helping young people build their character and take part in outdoor adventure. The contribution of all adults working in the Movement is equivalent to nearly half a billion pounds of paid services for young people annually.

Adults who are interested in joining Scouting can find out more details at: http://www.scouts.org.uk/join

Talking with the inspiring Rakesh Ram at Community LD, a town centre group that provides training and support for people seeking employment, I got a clear understanding of what a crushing burden the top down, bureaucracy beloved of Prime Minister Brown can be.  Rakesh is local, highly motivated, experienced and capable. In short, he is exactly the sort of person that someone in Bedford would want to turn to get advice and encouragement.  However, because of the intrusive, restricting and obsessive requirements of the bureaucracy, Rakesh finds much of his time taken up by the requirements of form filling, and less of his time available for doing what he loves to do –serve the needs of his clients.

In this election , there are competing visions for how we provide the social goods – the schools, the health services, the policing etc – that we all share and we all benefit from.  Labour’s proposal is more of the same obsessive and controlling formats of the bureaucratic state. The stifling of local initiative, the restriction on the exercise of judgement by those – the teachers, doctors, police officers etc – who we trust to provide those services here in our local schools, hospital and on our streets.  More of the same is what we will get if Mr Brown and Labour are re-elected.

The other model, proposed by Mr Cameron and the Conservatives, is to push authority for our public services down to a local level.  We want to empower local communities with enhanced authority over their hospital – with more foundation hospitals; their schools – with more rights for parents and teachers to establish their own schools; and with our local policing – via directly elected heads of our local police authority.  We also want to empower more discretion for those who are on the frontline – freeing them up from the “box ticking”, target driven culture that is so loved by the bureaucrats, but so frustrates those whose job it is to provide the services.

This is a big change – and one that will free Rakesh and his team to achieve all they would wish to achieve here for the people of Bedford.

Richard with participants in the Evening with the Entrepreneurs Event at Bedford College

The question that is most on the minds of people when I chat with them on the doorstep is “What can we do about the economy?”

People know that the country’e economy is in a mess – and they will render their judgement on those responsible when the time comes.  They know it is tough to answer all the questions; that there is no magic wand that can wave away the colossal debts racked up by the Government.  What people are looking for is a clear way forward and for leaders who can inspire confidence and who can lead.

Well, Bedford College was the venue in late March for a panel of leaders of business and social enterprise; people who can inspire, who have led, and who had very clear views of the way forward.  Their audience was the next generation of leaders – those in our upper schools, our colleges and other young people who have an idea, an inspiration of their own – and who were looking for advice and guidance about how to move forward.  You can see a video clip from Local News TV below:

Hosted by Irfan Latif, Deputy Head of Bedford School, the panellists took turns to describe their passion for what they do, how they got a start in life and what drives them forward.  First up was Adele Blakebrough, a pioneer in social enterprise and founder of the Breakthrough Foundation.  Damon Buffini, the Chairman of Permira spoke next and spoke of his work with Fairbridge, a nationwide charity that helps young people in to work.

Tim Campbell, the winner of the TV show “The Apprentice” spoke about the motivations from his childhood, about working with Alan Sugar and of his current project, The Bright Ideas Trust, that invests in businesses started up by young people in London.  Next up was our own, Lance Haggith, founder of Sports Traider and he was followed by Shaa Wasmund, who spoke directly of the drive that came from her experiences at school and which led her to work for Chris Eubanks, Bob Geldof and James Dyson.

Sparking, nurturing, investing behind and supporting entrepreneurial talent is the key to our country’s future success.  We have enormous talents here in Bedford and Kempston, and also across our nation – talents that can revolutionise our social services, create breakthrough ideas and build world beating companies.  Government can help to enable those who aspire; it can break down barriers that inhibit people from stepping forward with their idea; it can encourage people to take entrepreneurial risks; it can reward those who succeed from those risks, and for those who fail, give them a second chance to learn from their mistakes by trying again.

It was an exceptional panel discussion, expertly hosted by Irfan Latif who managed to draw out common themes and produce a vivid picture of entrepreneurship that can inspire a new generation of Bedfordians.

So the Mayor, Executive and now the Council have made the decision to move, now, to a two-tier education system.  We will embark on an expensive overhaul of our soon to be “Upper” schools and an expansion of the size of our Primary schools. 

Putting on one-side the educational merits of two-tier vs three-tier – and on balance, I believe the arguments were in favour of two tier – the decision for a change is a very risky one at this time.  The current government has so severely undermined the economy that there is very little faith that it has the money needed to meet its public funding promises.  When the current period of artificial stimulus is over, and whichever party is in government, there will be a strain on the public finances more severe than any in living memory.  Yet, despite this backdrop, the Mayor has led the decision to ask the Government for more money and foolishly taken them at their word that they have the wherewithal to pay.  I have my doubts. 

I say the Mayor has led this decision because his election was pivotal.  Once the Liberal Democrats won the recent mayoral by-election, the middle schools gooses had been well and truly cooked.  Although all parties split on the decision, Mayor Hodgson came out aggressively pro-two tier in the election, in marked contrast to the Conservative candidate, Parvez Akhtar, who favoured the status quo. 

All the assurances about the availability of finances that have been made by the Labour government are now inherited by the Mayor.  It his upon his assurances that this major upheaval in education is based.  I, for one, would not have taken such a risk with our children’s education, but for all our children’s sake, I wish him luck.