Robin's diary 15th February 2018

I’ve just driven past a big building site at the bottom of The Headrow in Leeds and what used to be, for those of you old enough to remember, the Quarry Hill Flats (where Queenie’s Castle with Diana Dors was filmed in the early 70’s) and I noticed that it’s now going to be part of Leeds City College. 

I must admit I was surprised they were using a very high-value City Centre site for a college, but I guess that’s just me having a business brain. 

Anyway, it got me thinking – here at Luscombe’s we have 50 staff and I believe that only one of them has a degree - the others, like myself, are either apprentice trained, self-trained or have just learnt lessons in life, and do a great job! I reckon it’s a great pity that we push everyone down the road of further education - I for one was much happier working and learning and doing day-release than I would have been staying on at school, so in my opinion, we should encourage young people to do whatever vocation suits them, but do it well. 

Fortunately, apprenticeships are on the increase – in fact we shall be looking for two more apprentices this summer. Overall in this country we have a manual skills shortage, and the jobs with the highest pay might not be in IT, but rather mechanics, plumbers, joiners etc, and certainly when the central heating doesn’t work or the car won’t start, we all know they are worth their weight in gold!!

“Job training empowers people to realize their dreams and improve their lives.” Sylvia Mathews Burwell

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