Kids grow up in the shadow of our city's skyscrapers... but many can't see how to get there

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The steel-and-glass towers which stand proud in the city centre are a symbol of Greater Manchester’s economy. It’s an economy which is growing faster than the UK’s is, according to the Mayor.

It’s one which features ‘plenty of good jobs’, he adds. But Andy Burnham has also recognised that it might not be for everyone — especially the children growing up on his patch. READ MORE: Bizarre moment councillor dons mask AGAIN - this time as a chicken “I think the issue is, at the moment, if you’re a young person sitting in your bedroom — in Oldham, or in Hulme, or Old Trafford — and you can see the skyscrapers from your bedroom window, I don’t think currently you have a feeling of a path that takes you to a job within one of those buildings, or in MediaCity,” he told journalists recently.

Mr Burnham, bidding for his third Mayoral term in May, has a plan to give teenagers that pathway. More specifically, it will give Greater Manchester kids an option that isn’t university, he claims.

That is the MBacc — aka Greater Manchester Baccalaureate — which will start in earnest in six months time. The Mayor hopes the MBacc will simplify what can be a very fragmented system of higher education.