The history of solidarity, community, and practical skills competes with challenges of skills gaps, shrinking opportunities, and persistent North-South divide in educational attainment. I call on the North East to rethink not only what it wants to become, but reframe the rules of how progress is defined.
The policies to level-up treat skills development synonymously with academic attainment. This view excludes lived experience, aptitude, and cultural strengths. Our skills must not be measured only in their contribution to the market, but how they serve people.
The North East doesn’t need handouts, it needs recognition. We must reorder our skills on-a-par with academic frameworks. Let’s build a community-led economy which honours our past and shapes the future.
North-South divide: not just economic, it’s cultural
The North East has suffered as a region of deficit in investment, opportunity, and aspiration. While a factual reality, this tale overlooks the cultural strengths forged in its industrial history because our curriculum ignores working-class struggle and skills. Consistent gaslighting has led to an amnesia about the real strengths of our heritage.
Whereas the South can boast higher rates of attainment which are measured on rigid qualification frameworks, we hold something equally valuable: practical intelligence, resilience, and community-driven labour.
We do not lack talent, but our definition of skills has been undermined by the focus on credentials. I can find enough parliamentary routines for more qualifications and alignment with metropolitan benchmarks, but what if we flipped the definition of ‘skills?’
Economy of skills, not salaries
Skills are indexed to high-productivity sectors or jobs requiring formal qualifications. I understand the macroeconomic rationality, but find it deeply limiting as it ignores non-academic, practical, and interpersonal skills that communities rely on.
Imagine an economy that values what we do, not just what we can generate in monetary terms (said a Chancellor of the Exchequer, never). A skills-based economy would recognise the contribution of care workers, tradespeople, artists, and community leaders. These skills are not on the fringe of economic progress, but actually keep our towns alive. Unfortunately, the exchange of skills, knowledge, and labour don’t show up on graphs or in policy meetings.
I am not rejecting formal measurements, but asking to diversify what we mean by ‘skills.’ Frameworks should celebrate lived experience, vocational expertise, and community programmes. We need local ecosystems to exchange, grow, and recognise skills through hubs which welcome local talent, encourage making rather than selling, and invite peer-led training networks.
Building on heritage
The industrial revolution and creative resurgence in Newcastle and Sunderland show that innovation does not require parliamentary permission, it requires pride in what matters for the people. Now, pride will not pay the bills, we need infrastructure that allows skills exchange. Local councils, universities, FE institutions, and businesses need to co-design pathways that reflect the local reality.
The future needs to be built from the ground up, not handed down from Whitehall. All we ask, let us define our economic priorities, and give us the tools to do so. Some initiatives provide useful skills frameworks in action. Construction Technical Excellence College is training young people in wet trades and green construction combining GCSEs with vocational pathways. North-East Local Skills Improvement Plan led by the North East Automotive Alliance is aligning training with employer requirements across areas such as manufacturing, creative industries, and green energy. The Skills for Growth programme funds local providers to deliver training in digital, creative, and green sectors.
These schemes are useful proof-of-concept, but we need to dig deeper into our heritage and revive the expertise at risk of being forgotten.
Skills as social currency
Let’s think again before we measure skills by qualifications alone and project growth through budgets only. Skills are passed down through generations and exchanged every day. They are developed in the real-world, not just educational attainments. Yes, we care about employment, but let’s not forget dignity, agency, and belonging. What can we do about it?
Create local skills exchange: a pilot by Age Better Sheffield (2015-18) enabled older people to pass their lived expertise in nursing, gardening, and trades to younger people who in turn taught digital literacy or contemporary skills. We need similar platforms for people to trade time, knowledge, and labour. We should reward people who bank their time.
Embed vocation in schools: not just optional subjects but as equal routes to success. FE institutions should partner with schools to expand hybrid skills growth.
Celebrate heritage: not just in museums, but through storytelling in schools, pop-up exhibitions, and archiving oral history. The North East hosts some of the best universities, they must take charge here.
Inheritance before investment
We must stop trying to play catch-up with the South, we do not need to be London. We must think again before buying into promises of ‘investments’ meant to woo outside developers. We must reconsider setting up another ‘business-park’ while conveniently ignoring the real challenges faced by people in terms of skills and opportunity. We need to lead in a different direction, one that honours our history while building an economy of collaboration, creativity, and care.
