Burnham-On-Sea’s MP has called for local ‘brownfield sites’ to be used for building projects to help train young people on the job.
Tessa Munt spoke about the importance of pushing traineeships and apprenticeships during an event organised by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion this week to discuss youth employment policies for the next few years.
One idea she proposed is making use of local council ‘brownfield’ sites – often derelict and disused industrial or commercial areas – for building projects specifically to train young people ‘on the job’ in the construction industry.
She said: “I’ve seen at first-hand the potential of going down a route like this from the Red Brick Building project in Glastonbury which is looking at giving lots of local young people the opportunity to be on an exciting building project where they can learn so much. There is every reason for us to be looking at doing the same thing in other places.”
Talking about the event afterwards, Tessa said: “I felt this was an essential session I absolutely had to be at because doing everything we can to assist young people getting into jobs and training is absolutely key at the moment.”
“I will be feeding the outcomes to the Business Secretary Vince Cable and taking them back to Lib Dem Party to be fed into the development process for our 2015 Election Manifesto.”
