Comment from The Northern Echo: A job of utmost importance

The Northern Echo reports job losses all too often, while job gains make the headlines all too infrequently.

That damaging imbalance means that the region has to fight harder and smarter to put itself in a competitive position with the rest of the world.

Just over a year ago, we launched our Working For A Future campaign in the wake of the 950 job losses at Black and Decker in Spennymoor. It was aimed at supporting multi-agency efforts to help communities like Spennymoor recover from the devastation of such closures.

Today, we extend that campaign to promote the key objective of the Learning and Skills Councils to plug the skills gap which exists in the North-East.

The stark reality is that the North-East is lagging behind the rest of the country when it comes to the skills which equip its people to meet the challenges of the modern world.

While the national average of people lacking basic skills in English and maths is far too high at 24 per cent, this region's record is even worse at 28 per cent.

Far too many of our brightest young people are leaving the region to pursue higher education and careers. The great sadness is that once they are lost, most of them never come back.

One of the North-East's most fundamental challenges is to retain those bright young minds by ensuring that local educational opportunities are maximised, and that they lead on to meaningful first steps in the world of work.

At the same time, older people who lose their jobs must be given the chance to retrain because success in the global economy relies on a flexible, innovative workforce.

And entrepreneurship must be allowed to flourish instead of being stifled by red tape.

We have no doubt that it will be The Northern Echo's sad duty to go on reporting job losses in the region. But only by working for a future together can the region start to redress the balance between bad news and good news on the jobs front.