Be bedrocks of future, Prince Andrew urges Walsall students

Prince Andrew was speaking to the Express & Star as he opened the new Walsall Studio School, which will take up to 300 pupils from September.

The school, based at the £3 million Goldmine Building, in Lower Hall Lane, is also home to the new Walsall Social Enterprise Zone where businesses that benefit the community can base themselves when they start up.

The Duke, who is patron of the Studio Schools Trust, met council and business leaders as well as charitable groups before unveiling a plaque. He also revealed he would not be offering any parenting advice to Prince William ahead of the birth of the Royal baby due this weekend, preferring to let his nephew make his own decisions.

The school will teach GCSEs and other qualifications for 14 to 16-year-olds. But they will also get weekly work experience and do projects with employers.

There will be a focus on business, creative and digital media, music and performing arts.

Earlier in the day the Duke had also been to visit the Black Country University Technical College which offers year 10 and year 12 students the chance to work on science and engineering subjects in a specialist environment.

It also keeps 9am to 5pm business hours.

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.

"It's mainly small and medium enterprises. Young people need to have that work ethic and work experience, with skills that they may not be getting at the moment."

While Prince Andrew used his visit to launch the Duke of York Awards, a technical scheme to offer awards for people who get qualifications and skills, he said he was not suggesting people turn their backs on university.

The scheme will work in the same way as his father's Duke of Edinburgh Awards where young people get bronze, silver and gold certificates for different activities. He said that it was an 'unenviable task' to be designing an education system predicting what skills and qualifications businesses will want more than a decade down the line and urged businesses themselves to get involved.

The Vine Educational Trust, which runs the studio school, works with Ikea to give young people work experience. The Duke, as the Queen's second eldest son and third child, is currently the fourth in line to the throne, which will change with the imminent arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby.