Thousands more adults set to benefit from new technical skills

Thousands of adults will be offered free training in sought-after STEM subjects, the Government have announced today, building on the Prime Minister’s pledge to level up and get more people into higher wage, higher skilled jobs.

The Prime Minister's Plan for Jobs is working, with unemployment down and payroll employees up, and now we are seeing further investment in the skills needed to support high quality, well-paid jobs.

The Government have announced 65 courses will be available at 10 Institutes of Technology across England from this month, allowing 4,000 adults to study sought-after STEM subjects, with priority for those employed in related industries such as digital or healthcare. This will include courses such as Artificial Intelligence, Digitisation of Manufacturing, Digital Construction, Agricultural Robotics, and Cyber Security.

The courses will be a blend of classroom and remote online study, and will vary in length from 50 to 138 hours – giving more adults greater flexibility in how and when they learn, so they can fit it around their lives. 

The programmes will be available to working adults aged 19 and over, with priority given to those employed locally to the IoT. The IoTs have worked in partnership with local employers to ensure courses address existing skills gaps, meaning employees from both large and SME businesses will be able to gain in demand new skills or retrain – so they can progress on to higher skilled, higher paid jobs in their area.

Separately, over 100 further and higher education providers have also been awarded a share of £18 million to invest in new equipment, such as virtual reality goggles, therapeutic play equipment for children, and air quality testing equipment that will support them to offer more higher technical training. The funding will also help them to boost links with local businesses in key sectors such as digital, construction and healthcare – so employers can tap into the talented workforce they need for the jobs of the future.

In addition, more than 100 further education and higher education providers will benefit from an £18 million cash boost to expand training and provide new equipment to support technical education, plugging the skills gap and levelling up opportunity.  

Locally, the Norwich for Jobs project launched its ‘Our City, Our Recovery, Our Futures’ campaign which is calling on young people and businesses to come together to enable Norwich to flourish beyond the Covid pandemic.

As we begin our recovery from the pandemic, it is clear to me that we need to come together and rebuild a city that we can all be proud of. It is about our city, our recovery, and our futures. The Government has already launched the Kickstart scheme to help 250,000 young people into work. I was pleased to see the that the Chancellor went further in the budget by doubling the incentive payment to small businesses to take on apprentices of any age to £3,000, alongside £126 million to triple the number of traineeships next year. They have also launched the Restart scheme to help hundreds of thousands of long-term unemployed; doubled the number of Work Coaches; and introduced the Lifetime Skills Guarantee to fund Level 3 Qualifications for all adults.

The Norwich for Jobs partnership have thought about how partners can work together effectively to enabling young people and businesses in Norwich to flourish beyond the Covid pandemic and tomorrow we are launching a new campaign, Our city, our recovery, our futures and are calling on businesses and young people to come together to enable Norwich to flourish beyond the Covid pandemic.

I urge businesses to get involved because together we can come back stronger, and together we can help young people to get the chances they desperately need. There are currently over 4,500 18 – 24-year olds in Norwich claiming universal credit due to being out of work or needing additional work. Around 2,000 of those young people are job-ready to get straight into work, whether in a new Kickstart role, apprenticeship, or other junior role. Locally, we can make a huge difference and help provide them with the opportunities, confidence and skills needed to find their future career.

As MP for Norwich North, ensuring that our children get the best possible start in life is one of my priorities. To find out what I am doing to ensure this, please visit: https://www.chloesmith.org.uk/myplan/children