A Brighter Future Ahead for Young People

On Thursday 9^th November, Laura Trott MBE, Minster for Pensions visited Stoke on Trent College’s Burslem Campus to raise awareness of pensions and to discuss proposed changes to pension Automatic Enrolment.

The Minister met with a group of Apprentices, T Level and BTEC students from Business, Engineering and Early Years courses to discuss financial inclusion and what the proposed changes to Automatic Enrolment (AE) might mean for young people in the future, and to seek the views of students. With Local MP and College supporter Jonathan Gullis.

This September, the Automatic Enrolment Private Members’ Bill – designed to help millions of people, including low earners and younger workers save more into their pension – completed its passage through Parliament and received Royal Assent

The Bill, introduced in the House of Commons by Jonathan Gullis MP creates powers to scrap the lower earnings limit and reduce the age for Automatic Enrolment, the landmark pensions policy which sees eligible employees made members of their workplace pension scheme without needing to ask.

Laura Trott MBE, Minister for Pensions said:

“It was fantastic to be able to visit Stoke on Trent College’s Burslem Campus alongside Jonathan Gullis MP, who is the brilliant MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke.

Jonathan spearheaded the campaign to take the Automatic Enrolment PMB through the House of Commons earlier this year. As a result the fantastic apprentices and young workers I met will have the best opportunity to save for the retirement outcomes they want.”

Johnathan Gullis MP said:

“It was excellent to welcome Pensions Minister Laura Trott to the fantastic Burslem Campus at Stoke on Trent College.  We had a really engaging Q&A session with some of the college’s excellent students about my Pensions Bill that will see young people under the age of 22 automatically enrolled into a pension scheme, and what this will mean for them. While retirement will be a long way off, it was great to hear this group of students were thinking about a financially secure future.

Touring the Technology Hub allowed us to see first-hand the teaching and learning of skills for our next generation to progress to high skilled, high wage jobs.

I would like to thank all the students, college Principal and CEO Lisa Capper MBE and the staff for making the visit so engaging.”

During the visit, the Minister had the opportunity to view some of the fantastic industry standard facilities available at Stoke on Trent College, including specialist equipment and facilities in two of the four Skills Hubs for construction and engineering.  These facilities form a key part of the College’s new strategy’ Skills Ready Future Ready’ which describes how the College aims to increase the range of specialist courses available to meet local skills needs in key industries, for both adults and young people. 

Stoke on Trent College are proud to be working in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions offering specialist training programmes designed to help unemployed adults and those who are inactive in the labour market or face barriers to work to improve their confidence and increase awareness of healthy lifestyles and mental health and the positive impact this has on their outlook to gaining employment.

Lisa Capper MBE, Principal and CEO of Stoke on Trent College said:

“We are extremely proud to work in partnership with the DWP on supporting young people and adults in to work. Raising the awareness and understanding of the importance of personal finance and pensions with our younger learners is a vital part of the work we do to ensure that they develop effective work and life skills during their time with us.”