Skills Bootcamps to be rolled out after £8m government funding
Skills Bootcamps, covering a range of sectors, will be rolled out across the Liverpool City Region over the next year, following a successful pilot programme.
The first bootcamp focused on digital skills and ran for two years. The new sectors to be covered include construction, engineering, green skills, HGV drivers, and rail.
They will be set up after Liverpool City Region Combined Authority secured £8.1m from the Department for Education to fund the specialist training, which will be free and is expected to benefit thousands of people
The flexible courses last up to 16 weeks and are playing a key role in the Government’s Levelling Up activity. The bootcamps will provide training with content at Level 3 standard or above.
Skills Bootcamps support employers who wish to retrain their existing staff to develop new business or retain staff, individuals who are self-employed, and also any adult employed or unemployed who is looking to gain new skills to enable them to progress.
Everyone who undertakes the training will be offered an interview with an employer.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “Talking to business leaders in our city region, it’s abundantly clear that, across every sector, there is a real hunger to recruit skilled, local workers.
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“Through the good work we have been able to do with our devolved powers over skills, we’ve been able to secure more money from government to give more of our residents the skills they need to get on.”
He added: “We want to create a region of highly skilled, highly employable workers, with a strong focus on those looking for a new challenge, a fresh start or a chance to return to the workforce.
“By giving local people the training they need to access good quality, well paid secure jobs, we can ensure that the talent remains in our region and that we have a workforce ready to take full advantage of the jobs that the Green Industrial Revolution and other industries of tomorrow will bring.”
Minister for apprenticeships and skills, Alex Burghart, said: “Skills Bootcamps are a highly effective way to learn skills at pace in a range of in demand sectors including digital, construction and green transport.
“This funding boost will support even more adults across the region to take advantage of these free courses and get on the path to well-paid careers.”
The Liverpool City Region was one of only six areas nationally to pilot Skills Bootcamps in digital back in September 2020, aimed at helping participants gain jobs in the digital sector, and went on to run a further round of digital Skills Bootcamps in 2021.
To date almost 700 people – a combination of unemployed, self-employed, and employed – have completed a digital Skills Bootcamp. Their progress will be monitored over the coming months.
