University to deliver Government-funded Skills Bootcamps to boost careers opportunities through the Institute of Coding
Manchester Metropolitan University will harness its digital and business expertise to run new Skills Bootcamps, giving people the opportunity to build up their digital skills for a career in tech.
The training will support learners from disadvantaged groups, long-term unemployed and people re-training following the pandemic to boost their skills in foundation computing, digital marketing, digital business, enterprise and cyber security – giving them the advanced skills needed for technology roles.
As well as supporting people into new roles, it will help to tackle the UK’s digital skills gap and provide employers with a trained and future-proofed workforce.
Developed by and funded by the Government as part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and Plan for Jobs, the flexible Skills Bootcamps are delivered as part of the University’s involvement in the Institute of Coding (IoC), in partnership with employers, providers and local authorities.
The Skills Bootcamps will provide learners with digital skills education and deliver resilient pathways to work, with learners receiving the opportunity to interview with an employer after completing their Skills Bootcamp.
The University’s new School of Digital Arts (SODA), Business School and Computing and Mathematics department will deliver a 14-week programme to help develop digital tech and business skills, in partnership with Manchester Digital, The Specialists Hub, and The Heroworx Institute.
Professor Rob Aspin, Chair of Extended Reality, Deputy Head of the Department of Computing and Mathematics at Manchester Metropolitan University, and University lead on the Skills Bootcamps, said: “We are delighted to be chosen to deliver the Skills Bootcamps, which are all about developing meaningful careers for people in the digital industries. Our Greater Manchester consortium is a partnership between the University’s centres of excellence in digital and creative and three highly experienced regional organisations with an extensive track record in developing and delivering these Skills Bootcamps. The programme we have created is industry focused, both in digital technology and the broader skills and confidence needed to really kick start a new career in digital.”
The scheme builds on University initiatives such as SODA, opening in September to help plug the digital skills gap in the creative sector, its involvement in the Greater Manchester Cyber Foundry and Greater Manchester AI Foundry, helping regional small and medium-sized enterprises benefit from new technologies and opportunities, and its outstanding degree apprenticeships programme that provides training hand-in-hand with industry.
Our Greater Manchester consortium is a partnership between the University’s centres of excellence in digital and creative and three highly experienced regional organisations with an extensive track record in developing and delivering these Skills Bootcamps.
The courses will also be offered as CPD programmes for employees already in employment but who wish to change their focus to digital careers. They start on 23 August, and they will run to March 2022.
The IoC-led Skills Bootcamps will be coordinated and delivered by a number of the 35 member universities of the IoC, a collaborative national consortium of industry, educators, and outreach providers led by the University of Bath that are working together to respond to the UK’s digital skills gap through the delivery of employer-led digital skills education.
16 July 2021
