Deliver a skills revolution to lockdown generation – The Yorkshire Post says

IT is ironic that Rishi Sunak, the current Chancellor, is too young to remember the 1980s recession when unemployment rose inexorably past the three million mark and left proud industrial communities scarred for decades.
A skills revolution will be needed to respond to the Covid-19 recession.A skills revolution will be needed to respond to the Covid-19 recession.
A skills revolution will be needed to respond to the Covid-19 recession.

He will, however, be aware of the lasting damage inflicted by the recession in the early 1990s – and how Britain was only just recovering from a period of spending restraint when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

And this political and economic scholar, born in May 1980, already knows that there’s a new generation of young people now counting on him to keep their own hopes and dreams alive.

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Yet, while it’s paramount that individuals take personal responsibility for their future, and are proactive in their approach, one word has never been more urgent or crucial – skills.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has the task of rebuilding the economy.Chancellor Rishi Sunak has the task of rebuilding the economy.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has the task of rebuilding the economy.

Barely mentioned since the UK went into lockdown 10 long weeks ago, the focus on skills will need to be relentless as a recession-hit economy undergoes such a systemic reconfiguration to take account of new working practices and financial realities.

How times change. The upheaval has been so sudden, and far-reaching, that careers which looked sensible just a matter of weeks ago now look ill-advised.

Yet it will be in the Treasury’s best interests if it empowers each and every region to invest in skills – and build on the work already taking place in Yorkshire. Investing now in today’s young people should pay off in the future with a skilled and dynamic workforce contributing to the renewed prosperity of Great Britain plc.

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Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

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If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

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