I've been using the parliamentary recess to get around the constituency to listen to people about various issues. I focus this week on two topics of importance locally and nationally.
The first concerns teacher training. Many of us remember teachers who inspired us and we should inspire people to excel there.
However, the Government's review of initial teacher training threatens some highly successful routes into teaching.
Traditionally, teachers train in colleges and universities in close partnership with schools. Locally, Durham University's training programmes are based upon strong links with clusters of local schools led by senior teachers and head teachers who guide trainees during school placements.
It enables student teachers to learn the craft of the classroom in a diverse range of schools. This happy marriage of theory and practice was applauded as outstanding by the regulator, Ofsted this year.
Sadly, this provision may be threatened if the Government insists on shifting responsibility for training to schools and if this results in universities taking a back seat in training.
We should be wary of threatening existing high quality cost-effective routes into teaching and replacing them by more expensive routes of unknown worth.
The second issue is about how local companies can play a bigger part in greening the local economy.
Managers at J T Dove Ltd, Northumberland's premier independent building materials' supplier, have lobbied me about the need for such companies to compete on fair and equal terms to help people improve the energy efficiency of their homes. I visited their branch in Birtley last week. It's a £25 million business, founded over 140 years ago, employing 160 staff in 12 branches. In the 1950s, the Dove family put the company into a trust - similar to the John Lewis Partnership - in which staff receive a share of any annual profits.
They believe that a lower VAT rate could revitalise building repair, maintenance and improvement works. It could also be a big boost to our flagging economy. My visit to JT Dove convinces me that they and other such companies can do so much in building our way out of recession and back into growth.
I will take both issues back to Parliament when it returns.
Newcastle Chronicle and Journal
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