Tory minister in visit to Stourbridge graduates
A top Tory minister believed she had the perfect recipe to help the region's young unemployed during a visit to a hotel and pub restaurant.
Esther McVey, minister of state for employment, visited the Premier Inn and Brewers Fayre in Birmingham Street, Stourbridge where she met some of the 16 employees who had graduated from a government-backed scheme called Sector-based Work Academies.
She also took a tour of the hotel and its facilities - and eyed up some tasty cakes on the desert carousel while there.
The aim of the government initiative is to provide unemployed youngsters with training in the hospitality sector and the chance to have a jobs taster for a number of weeks, with a guaranteed job interview at the end.
The graduates were among 60 new jobs created at the site, which opened on December 18.
Two of the graduates she spoke to were Joshua Pagett, aged 20 and Samantha Taylor, aged 18.
Mr Pagett, of Kingswinford, said he used to work in warehousing and security, but had been unemployed for a year, adding: "The big difference the job has made for me has been the boost in confidence as I have just had a year of applying for jobs, so it has been a big boost to everything really."
Miss Taylor, of Amblecote, did sector-based training at Stourbridge College and trained on the job at the Brewers Fayre at The Lakeside in Oldbury.
Miss McVey said: "As far as jobs are concerned in the West Midlands, what we have seen is an increase in employment of 17,000 last year. Added to that, the area has seen the second biggest fall in unemployment in the UK by two percent, so there has been an increase in employment and decrease in umemployment."
However, she said the government was looking at measures to encourage further business growth, such as reshaping business rates and cutting corporation tax.
