GTA: business and education 'needs to be more joined up'

Simon Le Tocq, pictured, the new chief executive of the GTA University Centre, told the Institute of Directors' winter seminar that he believed that despite considerable engagement going on between the College of Further Education and the business community, links between schools and industry could be stronger.

'There are some businesses getting out into the schools – it would be nice to see a lot more of that happening,' he said.

'A lot of this is about aspiration as well, and somebody going into schools and saying "I'm a local person, I have managed to do this and you can too" would be really fantastic.

'I'd like to see a lot more of that, and also at the planning level as well, education and business sitting down, talking about what they need in the future and what we can help to provide.

'I'm not saying that education needs to go the route of just being something that trains people for jobs, but it does need to be a little more joined up.'

Following criticism that local teenagers often seemed under-prepared to enter the world of work, Mr Le Tocq said that evidence had shown that young people with work experience tended to perform much better.

'Students who had some work experience, a Saturday job, voluntary work, showed a marked difference going into jobs than those who hadn't,' he said.