MARY COYLE, incoming chief executive of the Aspire Campaign, reflects on 2006 and looks ahead to the role she takes up next month.

"2006 has raised the bar in terms of the quality and variety of events designed to engage and inspire young people to uncover the range and diversity of career opportunities available on their doorstep.

The highlight of Aspire's work to bring employers face-to-face with our young people this year has to be the North-East Really Delivers bus tour, which saw a converted double-decker take to the road during the summer. The schedule was packed with workshops held by the region's top employers, as well as competitions and careers surgeries to give young people a taste for a future career choice.

The Aspire Campaign was also fortunate to work with a number of delivery organisations this year, particularly Tyne and Wear Business Week, and helped to promote Biz Idol Under 18, which encouraged pupils to think like entrepreneurs. We were also proud to support initiatives such as Regional Science Live, which showcased the cutting-edge jobs open to our young people in the burgeoning science sector.

We are passionate about dedicating 2007 as the "year of the young person" in everyone's consciousness, and motivating every business to step up a gear in their support of the key aims of Aspire - to inspire our young people to stay, learn, train and work in North-East England. I look forward to meeting businesses across the region and explaining our aims at Aspire - we will be taking our campaign to businesses and asking them to make a pledge to make contact with the education system this year.

Every one of us needs to take responsibility for showcasing what a bright future this region has to offer our young people. Our core objective is to get employers engaged and addressing this issue and to get them to share their best practice with each other. It will be our role to steer employers who need help in getting started in the direction of the bodies that exist to help them make contact with our region's schools.

If we open the channels of communication between businesses and young people and do it effectively, I think 2007 can be a year remembered for genuinely shaping the regional workforce of the future."