Powerhouse board to review North’s education, skills

A MAJOR review into education and skills levels in the north of England has been launched.

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership Education and Skills Board was launched as the main NPP board met at Drax Power Station, in North Yorkshire.

The meeting was chaired by Evening

Standard editor and former chancellor George Osborne, inset, who also toured the site. The new board will undertake research and consultation across the North and will include the former Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, a spokeswoman said.

It will be chaired by Manchester Airport’s managing director Collette Roche, and its review will investigate “why educational attainment at 16 is so low across the region and how the demand from employers for technical and higher-level skills can better be served”.

A spokesman said that 56 per cent of pupils attain five or more A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and Maths, across the north of England, compared with 61 per cent in London.

He said the board will also address skills deficits, with the biggest gaps being at higher skill levels. The Northern Powerhouse Partnership is an independent body launched by Mr Osborne in September 2016. It was first suggested by Mr Osborne in a speech at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry and announced the country’s need for a ‘Northern Powerhouse’. He said it would be an attempt to corral the North’s population of 15m into a collective force that could begin to rival that of London and the South East. It would be “a collection of northern cities sufficiently close to each other that combined they can take on the world”, he said. Since then the Northern Powerhouse has entered the political lexicon.