SCHOOLS and colleges need to teach pupils that manufacturing and commerce provide jobs as creative as the arts or IT, East Lancashire business boss Mike Damms believes.

The Chamber of Commerce chief executive wants to ensure local young people see these crucial fields as well-paid and satisfying careers.

With the latest national jobless figure falling to 7.6 per cent and the number of 16 to 24-year-olds in work rising to 71.8 per cent, Mr Damms wants East Lancashire’s young people to benefit from the upturn in the economy.

Central to his manifesto, which includes ensuring basic literacy and numeracy skills, is teachers stressing the job satisfaction and rewards available in the manufacturing and business sector at the heart of East Lancashire’s prosperity.

He said: “What is vital is our young people realising jobs in manufacturing and commerce are as creative as working in IT or the arts and can give fulfilling, well-paid careers.

“The economy is starting to pick up and we need local firms, schools, colleges and training providers to work together to take advantage of this, which is why the Lancashire Telegraph Action for Jobs campaign is so important.

“From primary schools upwards, teachers need to give our next generation the basic literacy and numeracy industry needs.”

Earlier this month, a Government-commissioned review found there was a ‘substantial demand’ for engineers in the UK economy and concluded that more must be done to encourage young people, particularly girls, to take up the profession.

Mr Damms added: “We need to encourage students to take subjects like science and engineering so they have the skills companies in Lancashire need.

“Firms in the county are taking on apprentices.

In Rossendale alone, two companies, JJ Ormerod and Killelea have taken on 10 this year.

“The big firms have good schemes but we need smaller companies to do more and the government to help with incentives.

“We also need more language tuition, especially in tongues like Chinese and Russian where there are big potential export markets.”