Newark MP Robert Jenrick writes about raising educational standards

Nine years ago, in the spring of 2014 I was the newly-selected candidate to be MP for Newark. It feels like yesterday. — Writes Robert Jenrick MP

There was a lot to do and an election to be won, but I wanted to set out a positive vision for Newark and eastern Nottinghamshire and that meant thinking hard about the fundamentals.

Why was unemployment low, but some people living on low wages? Why was the town coming at the bottom end of social mobility indices?

I came to some firm conclusions.

One was the need for more public investment in infrastructure, like roads and railways to further improve connectivity of the town. The other was that we need to significantly improve the quality and breadth of secondary and vocational education.

We’ve made a lot of progress with secondary education. From having two under-performing schools in Newark, we now have three strong secondary schools.

Parental choice was grown, healthy competition has driven higher standards and as a result far fewer families feel the need to send their children to schools in Bingham, Southwell and Tuxford.

The next piece in the puzzle is vocational education, ensuring that there is technical training of the highest quality, leading to excellent apprenticeships and well paid jobs regionally and indeed beyond.

The Air and Space Institute (ASI) will make a valuable contribution to this. This has been partly funded by the £25m towns fund granted to Newark.

I established the fund as Secretary of State for Local Government so that smaller towns could access public investment for regeneration and economic development.

This new institution already provides a range of courses to young people in the aviation and space sectors. The aviation sector was very badly hit during the pandemic. It is now bouncing back and there are vacancies and shortages in all areas so there are a lot of exciting and often well paid opportunities available.

As Immigration Minister I am asked to open up routes for foreign workers to support this industry, which we do, but I would much prefer those jobs went to young British workers.

Locally, we have significant history with this industry. We have close links with the RAF in Lincolnshire, a growing airport at East Midlands and world class aviation businesses such as Rolls Royce in Derby- whose brilliant apprentices I met recently.

I understand that ASI will shortly be providing T-levels in engineering. These are the UK’s new vocational qualifications and are being rolled out across the country as an alternative to A-levels.

A T-level focuses on vocational skills and can help students into skilled employment, higher study or apprenticeships. Classroom teaching is accompanied by placement with relevant firms.

Until now local young people had to travel some distance to do T-levels. I am delighted that these will shortly be available in Newark. The T-level in Engineering at IASTI, whilst linked to their mission on Aviation & Space, will have broader application, leading to careers in all manner of engineering roles. If you are a parent or student, do consider it.