Lord Blunkett said that he was aiming for “a step change in reaching people in the immediate locality who have not thought of accessing careers at Heathrow” in the work of his Heathrow Skills Task Force.
Lord Blunkett was speaking at the West London Economic Prosperity Board, providing the council leaders present with an update on the work of the task force and its priorities going forward.
He explained that the Heathrow Skills Task Force which he chairs aims to draw together lots of strands of activity around skills, but focussed much on how it would seek to ensure West London’s people were included, and benefitted from the growth.
He discussed the need for skilled labour, especially given the consequences of Brexit, and outlined the opportunity to develop programmes to hep local people develop in to the new jobs which will be created at Heathrow.
He said: “This is a great opportuity for apprenticeships, we are building a real partnership with the colleges.”
He also promised that he would ensure monitoring to check that Heathrow do what they say they are going to for West London on the skills agenda.
