THE Government has been dithering for weeks over a bid to establish a new engineering technical college in this region.

Since the Coalition came to power plans for 45 university technical colleges (UTCs) have been given the go ahead, but none of them are in the North-East.

It seems staggering that a region which is attempting to reassert its position as a hotbed for engineering doesn't have a UTC to help train the skilled workers of the future.

We already possess some superb facilities at the likes of South West Durham Training and TTE Technical Training Group, which train hundreds of apprentices every year. But the opening of Hitachi's train factory in Newton Aycliffe is less than two years away, and ambitious manufacturers such as Gestamp, Ebac, Nifco and ElringKlinger, to say nothing of Nissan's voracious appetite for new talent, means that firms face a skills crisis.

Without properly trained people what chance do our companies have in fiercely competitive global markets such as advanced manufacturing?

Hitachi, Gestamp and Sunderland University have submitted a bid to set up a UTC in Aycliffe.

The Government is expected to announce next week if the scheme has been approved. 

A rejection would undermine claims that the Coalition is determined to help create private sector jobs in areas taking the brunt of spending cuts.  

IF your Friday evenings are now spent in front of the fire rather than out on the tiles you might wish to tune into BBC2 at 8pm this week where you can see my brother Tony appear on Mastermind.
He inherited the brains; I got the myopia.
I went along with him when the episode was filmed last year at the BBC Media City studios in Salford.
It was a terrifying experience.
Any vague notions I might have held that one day I'd sit in the famous black leather chair were blown away when I saw what the contestants go through.
The show is filmed pretty much live, so what you see on the telly is what happens in the studio - John Humphreys firing questions in the dark at some hapless victim. It is brutal, and Im amazed they could remember their own names let alone dredge obscure facts from the memory banks.
Why anyone would go though this for the chance to earn the top prize of a cut-glass rose bowl is beyond me.
Bizarrely, before Humphreys came on stage, the BBC employed a warm-up man to entertain the audience. Funnyman - I use the term loosely - Ted Robbins, who some of you might remember as the devious Den Perry in the sitcom Phoenix Nights, performed the type of stand-up act that I thought had been retired when Les Dawson popped his clogs. Nevertheless, Robbins mother-in-law gags and quips about seaside landladies brought the house down, and it took the best efforts of the floor manager to hush the audience before the lights dimmed and the foreboding theme tune entitled Approaching Menace was played.
You'll have to tune in on Friday to find out what happened next.

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