Watch: Leonardo is an engine of social mobility

The Rt Hon Justine Greening:

I'm here at the Leonardo site in Yeovil. It's the home of British helicopters. In fact, they've been built here for over a hundred years.

This event was bringing together the local community, local councillors, local politicians, the local Chamber of Commerce, together to celebrate the fact that actually Leonardo is an engine of social mobility.

It's an anchor institution that is working with colleges locally, like Yeovil College, to build a supply of talent, who come into the business and really take opportunities.

But then crucially, it's also supporting a much broader economy because of the work through its supply chain, which stretches far and wide across the region.

All of this, I think, really matters, because what it gives you is almost a blueprint for how social mobility can happen on the ground in a really sustainable way.

And the key to this, I think, is partnership. It's the local education service and system. It's local companies coming together and then it's working together with local authorities.

When you get those people in a room together with a common plan, then as you can see, long-term change starts to happen.

Clive Higgins, CEO of Leonardo UK:

It's been a great pleasure to be here today at Leonardo's facility in Yeovil, as we recognise Yeovil as the home of British helicopters.

My personal journey started here over 30 years ago when I joined as a mechanical engineering apprentice working on the aircraft. And 30 years later after a number of different opportunities including spending time living and working in Italy, I came back to the UK and have recently taken over the role of CEO and Chair of Leonardo in the UK.

This facility along with Leonardo's other sites across the length and breadth of the UK really does represent all that's good in terms of investment in people, in skills, in technology and a real national asset in providing defence resilience to the UK, something that is absolutely necessary is what we've seen from the events in the Ukraine over the recent period.

So what we need to do is ensure that facilities like this continue to receive investment, continue to receive support from government, from local communities and we can return that tenfold, ensuring that we provide community cohesion, employment skills and purpose to everything that people do.