Corrie accused of poor portrayal of factories

TYRANT TV bosses such as Coronation Street’s Mike Baldwin are deterring teenagers from taking factory jobs, academics said yesterday.

A report has criticised soap opera factories as being full of “working-class people doing repetitive badly-paid work at the mercy of an autocratic sexist boss.”

It says students think manufacturing is “boring, dirty and smelly.”

The report, published by the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (Newi), blames Coronation Street and BBC drama Clocking Off for students’ attitudes.

Coronation Street’s Underworld, run by cockney Baldwin, comes in for particular criticism.

Newi’s chief executive Professor Mike Scott said: “Coronation Street has a huge impact especially with younger people.

“I believe the way Underworld is portrayed is affecting our ability to attract students into manufacturing and engineering.”

The institute cites DfES figures showing the number of students getting engineering-related degrees is falling.

The soap could be turning students off from skilled jobs in hi-tech industries, the report says.

“Factories wouldn’t survive if they bullied workers and adopted the working practices as shown on television,” Prof Scott said.

A survey of teenagers by the Institute found 96% of girls had not considered a manufacturing career, but 61% of boys had.