Prime Minister David Cameron has been urged by a Bradford businesswoman not to point Britain in the direction of leaving the European Union in his landmark speech on Europe today.

Caroline Harrison, managing director of employment and training social enterprise Aspire-i, has written to Mr Cameron warning him that loosening ties with the EU could have a significant negative impact on organisations working on European-funded projects.

“Leaving the EU would be bad for our organisation, bad for Bradford and bad for the country as a whole,” said Caroline, who has also circulated her letter to local MPs and MEPs.

She said that too many people focused on issues such as migration into the UK from other EU states , whereas the reality was a two-way traffic that offered a large number of employment opportunities for British people.

In her letter she tells Mr Cameron that Careers Europe, a division of Aspire-I , had spent 20 years operating as the UK’s representative in the Euroguidance network, currently part of the European Commission’s lifelong learning programme. Its staff regularly worked in 34 European countries on sharing expertise and helping to establish international standards on guidance and counselling policies.

In her letter she tells the Prime Minister: “I thought it important that I write to you at the present time to ask that you consider the impact of any proposed changes to UK membership of the European Union on organisations such as ourselves, who work on programmes funded by the European Commission.

“We operate in the social sphere of careers guidance and employability programmes. We offer valuable employment in the city. We work with European partners on a wide range of transnational development and transfer of innovation projects. We bring best practice home to the UK.

“We are looking forward to working on more social mobility projects under the new Europe 2020 strategy. "Europe brings all of us the opportunity of mobility across European boundaries – and is not just about immigration. It offers us all the possibility of work and study beyond the UK, and all of the opportunity and expertise that comes with co-operation.”

She said she felt it was opportune to flag up the work of Aspire-I. which has 70 staff, and to draw attention to the benefits of EU membership.

She said:“We operate from Bradford but hold a national brief within the EU in our sphere, which is all about giving people opportunities for development, training and work.

“There are four million unfilled jobs across Europe and we can help people in Bradford and elsewhere to broaden their horizons and take advantage of those vacancies.

“I felt it was important that David Cameron should know about a Bradford-based organisation taking a leading role in areas that are nationally and internationally important using EU funding which could be under threat if we pull out.”