£8 million to address skills gap in Manchester

An £8million investment pot is being proposed to fill vital skills gaps and drive productivity in Greater Manchester.

The £8million Investment Pot for Skills will help provide innovative skills provision and will be linked to employer needs and skills gaps. This will see support provided for the four key sectors identified in the Local Industrial Strategy: health and care innovation; advanced materials in manufacturing; digital, creative and media city; and clean growth.

As such, the funding will be used to tackle technical skills, which is where most employers seem to report skills difficulties. It follows £3 million of funding announced earlier this year to more training in specialist digital skills for local people in Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

Sean Fielding, Greater Manchester’s Lead for Education, Skills, Work and Apprenticeships, said: “As these new industries grow and flourish, they will create significant global competence and additional value in the economy for Greater Manchester and the UK. Therefore, it is vitally important that we build a skills system that can meet the demand for these sectors.

“We need to focus activity in Greater Manchester on increasing productivity and reducing skills gaps and to make this happen we need to ensure investment is bespoke and bring together innovative solutions that include high quality equipment. By doing this we can truly drive growth in the city-region.”