Following the successful launch of a £3m Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund, businesses across Greater Manchester are being invited to apply for funding.
The aim of the ‘Fast Track Digital Workforce’ Fund is to help employers across all sectors (public and private) in the Greater Manchester and Lancashire areas develop a diverse pipeline of talent for jobs that require specialist digital skills.
The fund will be open for applications until Friday 5th September 2019.
This will be the first of two funding rounds that the GMCA will run. There is more information about the fund on the GMCA website and all the application paperwork can be downloaded via The Chest.
The fund is a great opportunity to address the digital skills challenge right across GM.
This initiative is being delivered by the GMCA.
Consortia of employers and training providers (including colleges and universities) can bid for between £50,000 and £180,000 to run innovative digital training schemes linked to skills shortage vacancies.
Greater Manchester’s ambition is to be a world leading digital city region one with a bold digital economy, which actively encourages businesses to invest and grow, and one, which puts people, our greatest asset at its heart. Together we are working to achieve a city region education, skills and work system that develops the skilled talent needed for our rapidly emerging digital and tech strengths and acts as a key enabler of lifelong learning and progression for all of our residents and communities, whatever their starting point.
Greater Manchester’s Local Industrial Strategy sets out priorities for building upon our unique digital/tech strengths and ensure all people in GM can benefit by:
- Grow existing and emerging sector strengths in cyber security, broadcasting, content creation and media, software development, digital telecoms, fintech and e-commerce.
- Underpin cross-sectoral growth by developing the digital skills pipeline required to adopt productivity enhancing digital technologies. Businesses right across GM’s economy continually cite challenges in recruiting digitally skilled talent1, including for some of the industry’s most in-demand roles with developer roles consistently proving the hardest to fill. Engagement with employers has particularly highlighted coding and developer skills, data literacy and analytics, digital marketing, digital methodology e.g. agile and user experience as being key skill shortage areas.
This Fast Track Fund is an exciting opportunity for Employers and Training Providers (including Colleges and Universities) to work together to develop new and innovative models of addressing digital skills shortages across Greater Manchester.
Download further information about the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund
Image: Digital by Nick YoungsonCC BY-SA 3.0Alpha Stock Images
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