My immediate task is to guide the new LSC through the initial period of transition.

That transition has been ongoing since July 1999 when the Government announced the new body.

Nationally, the LSC employs just 57 people at the moment, but that will all change on March 26 when everybody employed by the TECs will transfer to the new body.

That's around 5,000 people. The Tees Valley's LSC is a medium-sized operation operating in the five unitary authorities that make up the area. It will have a budget of £100m and around 100 staff.

We are currently facing some of the biggest challenges ever in the field of post-16 learning. Until now a lot of the funding has been targeted at further education and adult and community learning.

In the past, work-based learning has been handled by the TECs, further education by the Further Education Council and school education by the local authorities.

Now the biggest change is bringing together all the different funding strands into the LSCs.

I will be meeting with people in the Tees Valley, especially those in business, to see what is needed in the area and how those businesses view learning.

Nationally the LSC believes that everyone should have a stake in learning, that there should be a national push on developing new skills. That way businesses will be helped to find the right candidates they need to succeed.

It has been going very well so far. Business people and our partners, including the colleges, and the people we are trying to help (the learners) all claim they have been consulted on what the aims of the LSC should be.

Looking ahead, the future looks bright. In five years time we should be well on our way to developing the LSC's mission of having people with the skills to match the needs of the world of work.

That mission is to get as many people aged 17 to participate in learning as possible.

Currently, only 69 per cent of that age group in the UK is involved in learning. That compares to rates of 90 per cent and above in countries like France, Germany and Japan.

We are slipping back in the UK and we are even further behind in the Tees Valley.

Many young people in this area feel they have never been given the chance. They feel as though the world is against them. They are in a downward spiral that we must halt and we need to motivate our young people.

We must stop this decline, we must work harder and push harder to succeed. In this area we have had a traditional reliance on heavy engineering.

Youngsters tend to follow in their father's footsteps, which was all very well when there were still traditional jobs and skills for them to move into.

Our school-leavers must now look to move into new industries. Value must be placed on learning.

It was once the case in North-East that learning was looked down on, that learning and developing new skills was a waste of time. We must overcome this and prove that there is value in learning new skills.

The LSC in the Tees Valley believes that if the area prospers then so will the companies based here and the people who live here.

If the Tees Valley prospers then so will your business.