Prime Minister David Cameron recently visited Rolls-Royce’s (www.rolls-royce.com) head office and manufacturing plant at Goodwood, West Sussex, on the day it was announced that the company will expand its model line-up with an “ultra-luxury” SUV.

Speaking to 800 employees at the facility, Mr Cameron said: “Congratulations on developing a new SUV, which will safeguard jobs and livelihoods here in Goodwood and in this business. The Government will do everything we can to support you in the work you are doing, because — frankly — it is something the country needs more of.

“We need more manufacturing, more design and development, investment in technology, in teaching science and apprenticeships, so we can get out and sell to the world. All those things you are doing here at Rolls-Royce are
an absolutely vital part of the economy.

“Rolls-Royce is a British manufacturing success story, and the decision to build the new model at Goodwood is a vote of confidence in our long-term economic plan to back business, create jobs and build a more resilient economy. This Government is backing our automotive industry, which is going from strength to strength, providing financial
security to almost 150,000 people across the country and adding £14 billion to our economy.”

The Prime Minister also used the visit to emphasise the importance of apprenticeships to the UK’s manufacturing sector. He said the UK is doing more to encourage apprenticeships, but not yet enough. “I have long admired the German apprenticeships system, and our aim has been to copy some of that,” he said.

“We have seen two million apprentices in this Parliament, and we will see three million in the next one. We need a culture that celebrates engineering and vocational skills education as much as we celebrate academic education. If we do that, we have every chance of being a very successful industrial nation.”