THE new chairman of the Learning and Skills Council Tees Valley pledged last night to boost the numbers of adults in education during his time in office.

Terry Dabbs, who takes over as chairman next month, said he wanted to build a culture of learning in the Darlington and Teesside areas.

"My main concern is to get learning and skills embedded into the culture of the Tees Valley," he said.

"By embedded I mean that it becomes something that we do naturally, and not something we do specially."

Mr Dabbs said he was realistic about the area's competitiveness.

"In a developed economy, we cannot compete with less developed economies," he said.

"We do have a skills gap higher up the ladder, not just at basic skills, and we need to improve on that to become more competitive with similar economies."

Mr Dabbs, who retired as senior vice-president at Electrolux in 2002, replace Miles Middleton CBE as chairman.

He is an experienced businessman who boasts a 30-year career in the consumer electrical products industry, including six years as managing director of Electrolux Service UK.

Despite experience in big business, he pledged to help small companies train their staff.

"As dependence in the area moves more and more towards smaller employers, they do not have the same level of flexibility to train that larger organisations have," he said.

"They need our help, otherwise the training will not happen."

Mr Dabbs also sat on the board of Governors at Hummersknott School, Darlington, for 15 years and is a governor of the town's Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College.

The married father-of-three, who lives in Darlington, said: "All my children went to Queen Elizabeth. I feel that the education system in Darlington has well served my children and myself - I am a great fan.

"But then I would say that."