£7.4m awarded to expand Skills Bootcamps in the North East

£7.4m has been awarded by government to expand the range of Skills Bootcamps on offer to people and businesses in the North East.

The funding has been awarded to the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) by the Department for Education, following the successful delivery of the region’s Green Skills Bootcamps in 2022-23, which saw nearly 800 people aged 19 and over benefit from training.

In total, the North East LEP area has now been awarded £9.8m to deliver Skills Bootcamps between 2022 and 2024.

“The first wave of Skills Bootcamps focused on ‘green skills’, equipping people with the knowledge and skills they need to work in renewable energy, or with electric vehicles, for example,” explained Michelle Rainbow, skills director at the North East LEP.

“Now, we’re rolling out an expanded programme of training which includes more green skills and also training in advanced manufacturing, business and education, areas where we know there are opportunities for people in our region. This is an opportunity to build on the success of the previous wave of Skills Bootcamps and give even more people the chance to gain the skills which will make a real, positive difference to their lives.”

The Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer. They are part of the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, helping everyone gain skills for life.

This latest wave of Skills Bootcamps sees the number of training providers in the region increase from 11 to 18, and the addition of employer-led training, with businesses including Nissan and Unipres signed up to deliver training. New College Durham, Gateshead College and Education Partnership North East are also part of the consortium of partners guiding the delivery.

“The Skills Bootcamps are open to individual learners and to businesses that want to upskill their existing staff members,” said Michelle Rainbow. “More than 100 employers have been involved in shaping the training and we hope that another 1,800 people will now be able to gain new skills and guaranteed job interviews through this latest programme of Skills Bootcamps.

“This is in addition to the 350 who have successfully completed a Green Skills Bootcamp and have secured a new job, progressed in their current role or secured additional self employed contracts.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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