Coastal Scene Column - 25th November 2011

"The difficult time for the global economy continues apace and the unemployment figures especially amongst young people announced last week were of course a disappointment.

The Government are taking action to try and get people into work and to create jobs, through the work programme and regional growth funds. They are also delivering record numbers of apprentices.

The creation of apprenticeships are being welcomed here in Suffolk Coastal and EDF energy recruited 16 more apprentices this year taking the current level of apprentices at Sizewell B to 50. EDF have just launched their 2012 recruitment campaign to search for talented engineers for their advanced nuclear apprentice scheme.

They are organising an apprentice information day on Saturday 3rd December at Sizewell Sports and Social Club wi

th presentations given at 10.30am and 2.30pm. So if you are thinking about a career as an apprentice go along and find out more.

I have also welcomed the Government's plans to support women's enterprise. It was announced recently that funding will be provided for 5,000 mentors to support new and existing female entrepreneurs. Currently women are only half as likely as men to become entrepreneurs. Specifically trained mentors will be able to address particular concerns of female entrepreneurs such as access to finance, building confidence, achieving a work life balance and working from home.

We already have many successful businesswomen in Suffolk Coastal like Rachel Ducker from Apparition Marketing & Design, Erika Clegg from Spring and Julia Ewart from the Cotton Tree. Unleashing women's entrepreneurial abilities could add billions of pounds to our economy every year. We just can't afford to overlook the talents, skills and experience of women across Suffolk Coastal.

This week I met with Culture, Media and Sport Minister Ed Vaizey to highlight the poor freeview reception experienced by residents in some parts of Suffolk Coastal.

For those of us not on the main transmitter we have been unable to access the full freeview service. The digital switchover has provided extra channels but some residents will be left disappointed that they are unable to access services such as ITV3 or Sky News. All of us who cannot get the full service still have to pay the full license fee so I have been pushing the Minister to rectify the situation. He was sympathetic and will look into options to resolve it. He said this is a scarce time for public resources but we have to come up with some innovative solutions."

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