A SKILLS shortage in part of the region could be reversed thanks to a college receiving excellence status for its engineering training.

Employers in North Yorkshire say the county has an acute shortage of workers, despite having a high number of graduates.

However, Malton-based Derwent Training Association (DTA) and Yorkshire Coast College, in Scarborough, have been awarded full Centre of Vocational Excellence (Cove) status - which it is hoped could help to address the shortage.

Lord Derwent, a Conservative and anti-Euro campaigner, who is patron of the DTA, said: "As a businessman myself, I can tell you that the Government's recognition of the importance of practical training is long overdue.

"The political insistence in recent years on theoretical targets has had appalling consequences. The emphasis on the total percentage of young people who go on to so-called higher education is pointless if the education they receive does not fit them for the workplace."

Lord Derwent, who is deputy chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, in the City, said that made the work the DTA and the college were doing even more important.

"You are not only teaching technical skills and practical knowledge, but at the same time you are teaching your young people what they need to do to prosper and feel fulfilled in the world of work."