AN extra 2,600 people across Cheshire and Warrington will be able to sign up to Skills Bootcamps this year – thanks to £9m government funding.
This almost quadrupling of the previous year’s allocation will help fast track them into jobs and boost existing careers.
Covering diverse areas ranging from digital skills and health and beauty to logistics and 3D printing, the flexible courses of up to 16 weeks are designed to help employers fill vacancies and develop the skills of their workforces and to help individuals develop the skills they need to move into a job or progress in work.
In the last three years, 1136 people aged 19 or over have enrolled on a Skills Bootcamp with the region’s delivery of the programme ranked by the government as one of the most successful in the UK.
Now it has been confirmed Cheshire and Warrington has secured a further £9m Department for Education funding allocation for 2025/26 – meaning from April onwards the money can help support at least 2,630 learners and create at least 80 new Skills Bootcamps.
Based on an ever-changing jobs market and employer demand, those enrolling will be able to sign up to Skills Bootcamps in a wide range of areas and sectors such as covert surveillance, rail track maintenance, data analysis fibre engineering, health and social care, retrofit coordinator, scaffolding, accountancy and HGV driving.
Amid the continued success, the region’s funding allocation has grown year-on year – starting with £1m in 2022, rising to £2.4m in 2024 and almost quadrupling this year to £9m, with Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington, who run the programme in the region, today urging potential trainees, companies and training providers to come forward to help deliver the bootcamps.
Cllr Karen Shore, the member of the Cheshire and Warrington Joint Committee responsible for Skills and Careers, said: “Securing £9m in Department for Education is testament to the continued hard work and successful delivery of the programme in the region. These Skills Bootcamps will not just help thousands of people across Cheshire and Warrington looking to get into work or climb the ladder, they will help employers recruit people with the right skills amid a shared vision for the region to have the healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy in the UK.”
