Better late than never as Boris tells Telford students they can be winners

The mayor of London, who last week appeared to rule himself out of being the next Conservative leader, chatted with youngsters at Juniper Training at Telford yesterday.

He spoke of the need for investment in vocational training, saying it was crucial to the development of Shropshire's economy.

Mr Johnson, who is seeking a return to Westminster in the forthcoming General Election, chatted with youngsters about their career aspirations, and engaged in banter with one boy who said he wanted to be a football coach.

When asked where his sporting allegiances lay, Mr Johnson gave a diplomatic response. "I support all London teams, although for some reason my kids support Newcastle United."

Mr Johnson said he was very impressed by the way the youngsters had a clear direction of what they wanted to do.

In an exclusive interview with the Shropshire Star, he said he knew the area well, through his first marriage to county socialite Allegra Mostyn-Owen, whose ancestral home is in West Felton, and also his time working at the Shropshire Star's sister paper, the Express & Star, in the late 1980s.

One of the teenagers, 17-year-old Latoya Davidson from Oakengates who is studying BTEC work skills, told Mr Johnson she wanted to work in the care sector. She said she was quite impressed by Mr Johnson, but his words had not persuaded her to change the way she planned to vote when she is older.

During his visit Mr Johnson said that providing Shropshire school leavers with the skills to compete against the best in the world would be crucial to regenerating the county's economy.

Mr Johnson said investment in apprenticeships and vocational training was essential if Telford and the surrounding areas were to take full advantage of the economic recovery and attract big-name employers.

The teenagers Mr Johnson met at Juniper Training are all students on the company's Mint course, which provides extra training for 16 to 18 year-olds to prepare them for employment, apprenticeships or further education.

He said it was important that youngsters who may not have done well at school should be given a second chance to find their role in life.

"Sometimes you need to throw an arm around young people who may not have done well at school, and tell them they can still be winners," said Mr Johnson.

"We need to make sure that when the British economy creates thousands of brilliant new jobs that the people of Telford and the surrounding areas have the skills, the confidence and the imagination to get them."

Mr Johnson, who visited the centre with prospective parliamentary candidate Lucy Allan, recalled a story he wrote when he was a reporter with the Express & Star.

He said: "It was 27 years ago that I wrote an article that appeared in the Express & Star about the fact that there were lots of jobs, but no-one was doing them because they didn't have the skills.

"What happened was lots of British companies said if they could not get the skills from within this country, they would get them from the rest of the EU or from overseas.

"Bringing talent into this country is not a bad thing to do, but it is far better if we can be developing our own home-grown talent to take these jobs, giving people the skills, the confidence, and the social skills."

Mr Johnson said the number of young people in Telford who were not in education, employment or training – the so-called "Neets" – had fallen substantially in recent months. He said apprenticeships also had a huge role to play in revitalising the economy.

Mr Johnson said he was a firm believer in the ability of universities to transform people's lives, and said in the long run graduates generally earned far more than those who did not opt for further education. But he said it was equally important to stress that academia was not for everyone, and to instil self-believe in people who were not academically-minded.

Mr Johnson, who had arrived in the West Midlands by train, praised the new Wrekin Giant rail link between Shropshire and London, which was launched last year following a high-profile campaign backed by the Shropshire Star. He said there was a need to invest more in Shropshire's rail network, but said it was also important to press on with the controversial HS2 fast rail-link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

Earlier, Mr Johnson pleaded with voters not to deliver another hung parliament, saying he feared the Scottish Nationalist Party would seize the opportunity to break up Britain.

"I feel we are better together. Britain is a great, great United Kingdom. Why would you want to split it up? I worry about that. And I want us to have a good solid majority and work to put that behind us."