BRIDGING the gap between students and the business community is at the heart of a new initiative launched by Royston & District Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has teamed up with The Meridian School in, Royston, to create the Royston Business Learning Hu

BRIDGING the gap between students and the business community is at the heart of a new initiative launched by Royston & District Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber has teamed up with The Meridian School in, Royston, to create the Royston Business Learning Hub.

Chamber chairman Stephen Larcombe said: "The primary objective of this new learning initiative is to provide a quality assured supply of vocational learning and skills to meet the needs of employers in Royston and the surrounding district.

"A lot of business people today are busy and work under a lot of pressure.

"They sometimes tell us that there is a gap between the skills that they look for when hiring someone and those possessed by young people leaving school, college, or university.

"We want the Business Learning Hub to address this." he said.

Mr Larcombe explained that the first step will be for the chamber to contact businesses to find out what they are looking for in future employees.

"We will in turn pass this information onto the school, who will look at ways to incorporate this into their existing careers advice programme," he said.

"We also think the school may be able to offer something to the business community in return, utilising the teaching resources they have."

Students will also see the benefits of the learning hub, believes Mr Larcombe:

"Royston represents an important gateway to the Cambridge economic sub-region, where there is a lot of demand for skilled workers, particularly those with good IT skills."

"It will give the young people the opportunity to improve their skill set, so it's going to be a real win-win situation," he added.