Significant investment is being committed to ensuring that people across the West of England are able to upskill.
The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority has allocated £15 million – the authority’s largest ever skills funding – to support the mayor’s ‘ambitious’ plans to make sure that that the workforce in the region is one of the best-trained in the country. Of this investment, more than £5 million will contribute to the plugging of skills gaps in the region.
Included in this is the training of an ‘army’ of retrofitters, EV mechanics and other such roles that will keep the workforce relevant as the region transitions to net zero.
Around 200,000 young people in the West of England will also be supported into their desired work, with £1.5 million of funding to support secondary schools as they plan to improve their careers education. 10,000 long-term sick and unemployed people are also going to be backed to get into, stay in, and succeed in work through funding worth £1.7 million.
West of England Mayor Dan Norris, commented:
“Skills and training are a really important part of my role as Metro Mayor, and ensuring as many people in our West of England have the training they need and deserve to access good-quality, well-paid secure jobs matters greatly to me.
“Because I know the incredible impact good jobs and skills training can have on a person’s life. It helped take me on an incredible journey when it came to my own career - from a child protection officer to Parliament and now Metro Mayor of the best region in the whole country.
“Since I was elected three years ago, my West of England Mayoral Combined Authority has trebled the value of our jobs and training services for locals from £20m to £60m. We’re already helping over 35,000 residents in our region every single year through our brilliant range of programmes for locals - from youngsters in school, to people out of work looking to get back into the workplace.
“This latest funding boost for West of England locals is our biggest investment yet and will help to give tens of thousands more locals access to the support and training they need to develop new skills and develop their careers in the West of England.”
Image credit: iStock
