How Royal visitor spurred campaign

The Duke of York Prince Andrew was officially opening the Black Country's first studio school where as well as meeting pupils he met with charitable groups and business leaders.

The Duke, who is patron of the Studio Schools Trust, was sat having lunch in The Vines – the notorious former drugs den and brothel that has been transformed into a working skills hub by the Vine Trust on the edge of Walsall town centre.

At the table included council officials, local business leaders and the charity sector, including Vine Trust chief executive Kevin Davis.

"The prince was interested in the wider work that was going on to help youth employment," said Mr Davis. "The Prince was involved with the Ladder for London campaign led by the London Evening Standard and the City Gateway charity that helped to create initially 500 new apprenticeships.

"We had some dialogue where I said I believed I could pair together the equivalent partners in the Black Country."

On his visit to the trust last year, the Prince pressed home his philosophy urging young people in the Black Country and Staffordshire to be entrepreneurs and become 'bedrocks' of Britain's economic future.

He said: "Driving young people down a reasonably narrow stream of education can sometimes be counter-productive. We need to encourage people to open up their ideas. If we can create entrepreneurs people will come into the community capable of running a small business, which is the bedrock of how the economy now works."

Studio schools are a new concept in education, which seeks to address the growing gap between the skills and knowledge that young people require to get good jobs.

Around the same time of this visit, Express & Star deputy editor Diane Davies had attended a Society of Editors event and heard Prince Andrew talk of his passion for apprenticeships and the role the Press had in helping to tackle youth unemployment. So when the Express & Star was approached about taking part in an apprenticeships drive, she was biting at the bit to get involved.

She said: "The Prince is very passionate about his cause and that is very infectious. After hearing him speak, I had come back to Wolverhampton full of enthusiasm and here at the Express & Star we had been discussing possible campaigns but nothing as extensive as the Ladder for the Black Country. When Kevin approached us and was already recruiting the other partners, it was exactly the sort of campaign we wanted to be part of. I knew straight away it promised to be much bigger and more effective than the ideas we had alone. "

Along with Mr Davis, representatives from the Express & Star, training provider Performance Through People, the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, IKEA, and Walsall Council went for a meeting at Buckingham Palace in March. Mr Davis said: "We met with a delegation from the Ladder for London campaign and talked about how we could emulate this in the Black Country. All the partners were enthusiastic and committed and the prince agreed to be patron."

And the Ladder for the Black Country was born. The partners began to hold meetings setting up the foundations to enable the campaign to be a long-term project. PTP took the lead in setting up the website and helpline which will be the first point of contact for both would-be apprentices and firms offering to take on the young people.

The campaign quickly won support and backing while colleges and training providers stepped forward to help with the project.

The Palace has remained in contact with Mr Davis throughout, keeping a watching brief on the progress of the Ladder project.

The Express & Star decided to take the lead in kicking off the campaign and teamed up with City of Wolverhampton College to take on five multi-platform journalist apprentices.

Mrs Davies said: "We wanted to start the ball rolling and to lead by example. Now it's over to you..."