By the time this magazine reaches you, the fifth National Apprenticeship Week will be just around the corner. We haven’t put apprenticeships on this month’s cover just because we enjoy chortling at Lord Sugar being cartoonishly cantankerous with gel-topped young thrusters on the BBC (although who doesn’t enjoy that?), but because this is something that can make a genuine difference in the South West.
Take a look at Nicola Smith’s excellent cover story (p47) and you’ll find some inspiring tales of manufacturers and other businesses that have embraced apprenticeships and seen them play a full part in their successes. Mulberry, one of the South West’s biggest brands, is so enthused by its apprenticeship scheme with Bridgwater College that it has triggered a big investment in the region.
What has struck me over the first few weeks of 2012 is the quiet confidence in the South West’s ability to prosper. It has retained and built on strengths that others have lost – it’s a region that still knows how to make things. Without downplaying the importance of the financial and business services sector, if the downturn has taught us anything it’s the importance of a broad economic base. The makers matter.
Over the Christmas break, I spent some time in Germany, Europe’s sanest economy and its greatest manufacturing country, and was struck by how people still had money to spend – not many shuttered shops there – while also not being in the least bit ostentatious – there’s a distinct lack of bling. I see parallels with the South West. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges, of course there are. But my early impressions are that this region has its feet on the ground.
Finally, I’d like to thank Christian Annesley, my predecessor as editor, for building a great platform from which to take Insider onwards. I’m looking forward to meeting as many businesses as possible. Insider exists as a forum for business, and we want to hear your stories, so please get in touch.
Neil Tague, editor
Also in: February 2012
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Ready, steady, gro
Question for readers with young children: do you still have an airing cupboard full of blankets, or do you have sleeping bags for your kids?
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Regional Review - Altered images
Cider. Cheese. Farming. Basket weaving. The popular view of Somerset easily succumbs to lazy clichés, despite the fact that agriculture and food and drink production make up less than one tenth of its total economic output.