Thousands more people will train for new careers in Liverpool city region and Cheshire after Government offers £13.6m in extra funding for Skills Bootcamps. Tony McDonough reports
More than 3,000 extra people will be able to train or retrain for new careers in Liverpool city region and Cheshire after the Government released new funding of £13.6m.
City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham has secured £11.2m to provide Skills Bootcamps for another 2,500 people. So by March 2025 6,500 people in Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton will have completed a Bootcamp.
Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has secured an extra £2.4m to train more than 600 people. This will add to the 619 people who have already taken part in the scheme.
Thanks to the Skills Bootcamps people will be able to train in skills including construction, digital, engineering, manufacturing, HGV driving, logistics, green skills and rail.
Raising skill levels in key sectors – which also include creative and design, sales, marketing and procurement, and health and social care/life sciences – will enable eligible adults to move into more sustainable jobs.”
Mr Rotheram said: “Our area is home to one of the country’s fastest growing city region economies with world-leading industry clusters on our doorstep.
“I know from speaking to business owners that there is a huge demand for skilled, local people to join their workforce – and it is our role to help connect them to those opportunities.
“Staff at the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority have a proven track record of delivering incredible results with the funding we secure.
“This additional investment will help thousands more local people to access high quality training and develop the skills they need to build a career for themselves.”
Skills Bootcamps are free flexible courses lasting up to 16-weeks and primarily provide training at Level 3 standard or above – equivalent to A-levels.
They support employers who wish to retrain existing staff in order to develop new business or upskill and expand roles. And they support individuals who are self-employed, and any employed or unemployed adult looking to gain new skills to enable them to progress.
Everyone in the city region who completes the training will be offered an interview with a local employer or progress in their current workplace.
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LEP officials in Cheshire are reaching out to local employers, colleges and independent training providers to express an interest in running a bootcamp in a host of sectors.
Clare Hayward, chair of the LEP, said: “We welcome this additional funding which is testament to the hard work of all involved to deliver skills bootcamps that are matched against the needs and gaps of employers.”