Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has pledged that young people in the North East will have a clear career path into high-tech jobs that can “reindustrialise” the region. During a visit to microchip firm Pragmatic’s Durham factory on Tuesday, he hailed the company’s “world class” innovation.
Pragmatic’s Potential for the UK
Mr Reynolds, who grew up in Houghton-le-Spring, said the semiconductor maker offered “something really significant for what we need for the whole of the UK”. The visit was his first since returning to the role of business secretary under Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s premiership.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that science and tech jobs could help restore some of the “lost economic and political power” that once came from the North East’s mines and shipyards. “When the Prime Minister talks about reindustrialisation, this is what we are talking about. I don’t want people to think that is nostalgia, looking to the past, making the economy as it was in the 1970s,” he said.
Addressing Lost Power
Mr Reynolds added: “What the Prime Minister really does understand, and I know this because Houghton is about half an hour from here, is that while people don’t want those mines and shipyards back they do feel in many cases that their areas lost economic and political power in that time. That, I think, has been a real material influence is how people see their own lives and see the political system. The Prime Minister really does get that, I have seen it first hand in Greater Manchester.”
He described Pragmatic as “world class – if you work in this sector, this is one of the best places in the world to work and there is no doubt about that”. He said it also answers a persistent UK problem: “examples of brilliant British science and innovation that were commercialised abroad and we didn’t get the jobs. Pragmatic is challenging that and showing it can be done here.”
Jobs and Skills Plans
Pragmatic’s facility at the Meadowfield industrial estate, officially opened by Princess Anne in 2024, hopes to grow to 500 jobs within the next five years. Its products include a tiny chip that can be placed into products and show with a smartphone tap whether they have been tampered with, which could help combat counterfeiting of cosmetics, drinks and other items.
Catherine Ramsdale, the company’s senior vice president of technology, told the LDRS that growing a talent pipeline of young workers in the North East was a key ask to the Government. She said there must be a push to “make science exciting” to schoolchildren and show how it can translate into real jobs, including by removing barriers to work experience, to prevent them from being “siphoned off” into the AI and finance sectors.
The Prime Minister has promised “no dead ends” for thousands of young people across the North East facing joblessness when they leave school, pledging reforms allowing pupils to combine core academic subjects like English and maths with “prestigious” technical education linked to local jobs. North East mayor Kim McGuinness’ top demand of Mr Burnham has been to hand her major resources to solve the youth unemployment crisis, with a focus on jobs in housebuilding and retrofit industries.
Mr Reynolds said on Tuesday that “really significant power” would be devolved to help deliver the skills overhaul and tailor it to the North East. He told the LDRS: “The ability, as happens in most other countries, for local areas to tailor the kind of education offer to young people around some of the local economic opportunities is key. We do expect that – it is a partnership, it is always going to be, between state and business.”
He added: “You can set the system up to enable this, but what people want is the best work opportunities, the world class opportunities. It is important to say to people that they exist here in County Durham.”
