FIGURES released today suggest there is a concern among city employers that too many people in Nottingham are leaving full-time education without the right skills.

With that in mind, it is highly encouraging to see New College Nottingham is revamping its curriculum so its students have the skills which fit with the city's needs.

It is a commonly-held belief that you can have all the qualifications in the world, but without the experience and skills to do a job, employers won't look at you.

What NCN has done is identify industries which the city council sees as growth areas and structure what the college does around it.

It is also inviting major city companies to work in each of the 16 academies it has set up.

By doing this, the young people will get the chance to see for themselves what firms are expecting from them in the real world, while also getting to know prospective future employers.

We applaud what NCN is doing. It is ploughing a huge amount of money into the future of the city in sectors which the council has agreed really matter.

Nottingham has had high levels of unemployment, especially among 16 to 24-year-olds, and anything which is being done to alleviate these statistics must be supported.

Principal Amarjit Basi says NCN is leading the way in changing its curriculum as radically as they are doing.

At any one time, it has 20,000 students on its books – so the impact of the curriculum changes is bound to be sizeable.

By producing thousands of skilled and qualified students each year, Nottingham will benefit significantly from the college's changes, with huge amounts of young people ready to start work.