Business Secretary Vince Cable recently announced how a new investment of more than £20 million will boost skills and drive growth in key industries including nuclear manufacturing, renewable energy and healthcare.
£11 million of Government matched funding, awarded following the first round of bids to the Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF), will enable employers to deliver more effective skills solutions through more apprenticeships, new professional standards and closer partnerships with education and training providers.
Speaking in advance of his keynote address at the WorldSkills competition in London, which celebrates the achievements of highly skilled young people, Dr Cable said:
“Sustained economic recovery will depend on our ability to excel in the high tech skills that our most innovative companies need to compete in the globalised economy.
“That is why this Government is committed to skilling up our workforce through work based training. By providing concentrated seed funding for employer led projects that attract further investment from business, we’re targeting money where it will be best placed to drive growth.”
Skills Minister John Hayes said:
“We know that business is best qualified to identify how skills can drive growth. This investment will help employers develop their own solutions to the barriers that stand in the way of opportunity.”
The following are just a couple of the sectors that will immediately benefit from GIF funding; co-investment from employer groups could double the figures specified below:
Renewable energy
RenewableUK, the wind, wave and tidal energy trade association, is establishing a Renewables Training Network (RTN) to tackle the critical shortage of skilled workers in green energy industries. The RTN will create 2,000 places on training courses specifically tailored to those wanting to make the transition into the renewable energy sector, focusing particularly on mature skilled workers wishing to retrain. Working with employers, universities and colleges, the RTN aims to bridge the skills gap to help build a new low carbon economy, making the most of the UK’s abundant sources of renewable energy.
Investment: £579,583
Energy & Utility Skills
EU Skills will establish a Talent Bank for the gas, power, waste management and water industries. The Talent Bank will provide a skills brokerage service, a vacancy matching service and launch a voluntary levy. This will create 400 new Apprenticeship places and support the training of 400 high skilled technicians by 2014.
Investment: £362,870
To view all the sectors being invested in, please read the full press release from the BIS
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