HIS Royal Highness The Duke of York visited the region yesterday to officially launch the University of Sunderland’s new Higher and Degree Apprenticeships.

Attended by key regional employers, existing degree apprentices and civic leaders, the event shared the benefits of this new model designed to build higher level skills and support business growth.

Vice-Chancellor Shirley Atkinson, who welcomed Prince Andrew, said: “He is a great advocate of raising aspirations and understands the importance of education, skills and entrepreneurship in supporting, particularly young people, to have successful and rewarding careers.

“His work to ensure that Britain has the workforce and entrepreneurial culture to remain a global economic leader very much chimes with our own focus and impact at the university and it’s very positive to receive his support and endorsement of our work.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor John MacIntyre, who is leading the university’s Higher and Degree Apprenticeships programme, said: “We have developed our Higher and Degree Apprenticeships by collaborating closely with employers to ensure that the programmes will deliver the skills they need in their workforce.

“We are about to launch our Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship programme, and a suite of three Degree Apprenticeships in Engineering.

“These follow on from our very successful programme for the IT industry (the Digital & Technology Solutions Degree Apprenticeship) which we started in 2015, and we have ambitious plans with more programmes in development to be rolled out later in 2017.

The prince was also also given a tour of the university’s new Living Lab.

The Vice-Chancellor added: “Our Living Lab is unlike anything you will find anywhere else and we’re very pleased to have been able to demonstrate to The Duke of York our approach and how we are using the latest digital simulation equipment to teach the next generation of healthcare workers.

“We were also particularly pleased to be able to demonstrate the strong collaboration developing with our Armed Forces partners as a direct result of the opening the Living Lab.

“We want to ensure that those involved with front-line patient care - be they nurses, paramedics, pharmacists or armed forces personnel - are equipped with the skills and experience to meet any challenges they face.”