Peterborough university's open invitation to Prime Minister to see skills teaching for local jobs
An open invitation has been offered to Prime Minister Andy Burnham to view Peterborough’s university to see how it equips students with skills needed by city employers.
The invitation has come from the principal of ARU Peterborough, Professor Ross Renton shortly after the new PM announced that he would be telling schools to adapt teaching to the needs of local businesses.
Prof Renton said: “The programme we offer is what industry needs - that should be a formula for success for the region.
“We have an open invitation for Mr Burnham to come and visit us
“This is a model which can be an exemplar and one that could be implemented elsewhere.
“High quality, higher education provision and research and knowledge exchange taking place.
He said: “This has been an exemplary year for ARU Peterborough fulfilling our purpose of working with local employers and local industry to meet their training needs.
“There are some fantastic examples.
“For instance, the work we have been doing with organisations like Park Air in Market Deeping where our graduates are going in and getting the skills sets.
“The company took on four of our graduates last year and that company is also helping us to develop our curriculum.
“Another key thing is the work we have been doing with small businesses across the region.
“Our Boost programme has worked with more than 170 companies including 56 start-up, helping them to get growing and hopefully take graduates on as well
“We had our graduation a couple of weeks ago, and you can see through the celebrations, the ambition this city has and with such a high proportion of our students coming from Peterborough and the immediate area, we are absolutely having an impact.
“240 people crossed the stage for their graduations with more than half coming from the immediate local area.
“This is really doing the job we set out to do, which is to meet the employment needs of the region.”