GMCA awarded £7 million for further Skills Bootcamps

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has been awarded a further £7 million to deliver the next phase of Skills Bootcamps in the city-region.

The funding will support programmes to help people get the skills necessary to begin employment in key growth sectors, switch career or upskill into a better job. The bootcamps offer a fast-track to interview for participants, as well as helping employers meet specific skills needs to fill vacancies and improve productivity.

In 2022/23 GMCA funded 14 providers across three priority sectors as part of a pilot programme across the Digital, & Tech, Construction & Green, and Manufacturing sectors. There are a wide variety of Skills Bootcamps being delivered, covering skills gaps in areas such as digital marketing, cyber security, cloud engineering, low carbon heating, installation of green technologies, rail engineering, advanced manufacturing and industrial textiles.

GMCA is now looking for specialist training providers and employer partners with innovative ideas to train people for jobs in key sectors with skills shortages. Various opportunities are now will go live in the coming weeks for training providers to bid for and deliver training in the following industries:

• Digital, Creative & Technology  
• Construction & Green Skills 
• Manufacturing 
• Logistics  
• Education, Health, & Social Care 
• Hospitality, Leisure & Tourism 

Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, Greater Manchester’s lead for Education, Work, Skills, Apprenticeships and Digital said:

“Greater Manchester’s Skills Bootcamps programme goes from strength to strength. This funding boost will support even more adults across the region to take advantage of these free courses and get on the path to sustainable careers in key growth sectors. The programme also benefits employers by helping them to recruit a diverse workforce with the technical skills their businesses need”.   

Skills Bootcamps are fully-funded for individuals who are not accessing training through their employer (i.e. out of work, in-work and looking for a career change or the self-employed), however, employers training their existing workforce are asked to pay 30% of training costs. This is reduced to 10% where an employer has less than 250 employees.

The pilot phase of Skills Bootcamps concluded at the end of 2022 and saw over 1,200 participants completing training courses. Notably, 57% of participants were from ethnic minority communities and 50% were unemployed. A total of 72% of those who completed pilot courses were offered a guaranteed interview with 54% moving into skilled employment.