Derry MLA elected Vice-Chair of new All Party Group on Skills

SDLP Foyle MLA Sinéad McLaughlin has joined with other MLAs to form a new All Party Group (APG) on Skills and has been elected Vice-Chair at the Group’s inaugural meeting.

The APG will focus on the policies that are needed to develop higher levels of skills across the region and build a culture of lifelong learning.

Speaking after the meeting, Ms. McLaughlin said: “It is skills development which generates growth and economic productivity, leading to higher incomes and better living standards for everyone in our economy. I have no doubt that this Group will prove to be a useful conduit to discuss the interventions that are needed and I am pleased to help constitute this new initiative as the Group’s Vice-Chair.

“Of course, raising the skills profile of our workforce is crucial to the economic development of cities and towns across the North but it is especially important in regions like the North-West, where we have the highest number of individuals with no qualifications at all and some of the highest levels of poverty anywhere in the North.

"In our city, we also know all too well the consequences of disinvestment when it comes to skills, particularly given the Department’s failure over many years to expand university places at Magee to at least 10,000 students and build the university of size that we were promised.

“It is vital that we improve equity of access to skills development across the region and address geographic imbalances in provision if we are to attract the jobs and investment that are so badly needed to places that have been left behind, including Derry.

“All-Party Groups where MLAs can come together to discuss pressing issues are one of the only tools that we currently have at our disposal to advance the causes we believe in as public representatives. However, they are no substitute for an Economy Minister and a Committee which can hold them accountable for proper investment in our skills ecosystem.”