Vince Cable heaps praise on Burnley College (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Vince Cable heaps praise on Burnley College

8:00pm Sunday 20th November 2011 in Town centre By Jon Livesey, Reporter

BURNLEY College has been praised by Business Secretary Dr Vince Cable for making a ‘significant contribution’ to skills development.

The MP was addressing the Association of Colleges a year after the Government launched its Skills Strategy.

He said his ‘conviction has only grown over the past year as a result of talking to students on foundation degrees at Burnley College’.

“These colleges have a strong grasp of regional business needs and the flexibility to meet them,” he said.

“They are attuned to local employers – including smaller firms – and, as a college principal said to me the other day, they are adept at offering courses that fit with the rhythm and patterns of people’s lives: around family, work and other responsibilities.”

Mr Cable visited Burnley College in June as part of UK Manufacturing Dialogue North West Summit – a drive to promote manufacturing in the North West.

Burnley has double the North West average employed in ‘skilled trades’ and almost double the average employed specifically in aerospace.