Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls opens technical skills academy in Barking
Ed Balls praised education chiefs today as he was given the first look at a �14million academy set to provide thousands of teenagers with vocational skills.
The Technical Skills Academy near East Street, Barking, will teach cookery, hairdressing, multi-media, construction and engineering to students aged 14 to 19.
It will seek to slash youth unemployment by giving teenagers professional skills and breathe new life into Barking Town Centre.
The Shadow Chancellor said: “I don’t think this is a 1950s throwback, it’s an education necessity of the 21st century.
“I have seen this facility - It is really first class.
You may also want to watch:
“It is really going to make a difference to the lives of young people in the borough, not just for the next two years but for the next five, 10 or 20 years.”
The five-storey building will be able to teach up to 550 students at any one time.
Most Read
- 1 Barking fishmongers shut down by council after Covid-19 safety warning
- 2 'Terrifying' CCTV footage shows vandals take axes to cars of NHS workers
- 3 Appeal for help to find boy missing from Dagenham
- 4 Call to change 'cash cow' yellow box junction in Marks Gate
- 5 Jailed: Dagenham man for role in 'brutal' attack on off-duty police officer
- 6 Barking and Dagenham pubs and bars reopen for outdoor service
- 7 Council denies Barking mum's claim that it took hours to respond to flood
- 8 Police officer sacked after 'encouraging friend to lie about collision'
- 9 Jailed: ‘Extremely dangerous’ Dagenham man who plotted terrorist attack
- 10 Becontree Estate designed after Spanish Flu 'helped prevent Covid deaths'
It features a hairdressing salon, cookery facilities and a Starbuck coffee shop on the ground floor.
