Cheshire & Warrington residents to benefit from sub-region’s first Skills Bootcamps

Funding secured by the Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) will create the sub-region’s first Skills Bootcamp in care work.

In March, the LEP secured £1.2 million in government funding to train over 350 people in the region via Skills Bootcamps as part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee. Covering a wide range of areas such as green skills, digital skills, logistics, and skills in the rail sector, Skills Bootcamp courses of up to 16 weeks give local employers the opportunity to recruit people with the skills they need or develop the skills of their existing staff.

Cheshire and Warrington residents will also be able to gain sector-specific skills to help advance their career in a new role, or with their existing employer.

Following the funding award, Warrington & Vale Royal College will run Skills Bootcamp: Care Worker, which has been designed with employers and sector practitioners to help close the skills gaps within the health and social care sector. 

The two-day-a-week course, taken over seven weeks, is designed to offer progression into a more senior role for existing care sector employees as well as enabling those who want to enter the sector to fast-track straight into a care/support worker role. Students who successfully complete the programme will be guaranteed an interview for a vacant post with one of the following local care providers: Bright Futures, SOS Care, and Home Instead.

Amy Yorke, Health & Social Care Academy Business Centre Manager, said:

“We have a large offer of health and social care courses that this Skills Bootcamp fits in with perfectly.

“We work hard with our local community and steering group of employers to ensure that we are supporting recruitment into hard-to-fill vacancies, and the feedback we received was that the Skills Bootcamp: Care Worker course would be a hugely beneficial contribution to this.

“We are thankful to the Local Enterprise Partnership for securing the funding and are optimistic about the opportunities this Skills Bootcamp will bring to those interested in working in the health and social care sector.”

The Skills Bootcamps are free for all unemployed or self-employed people. For anyone in a job a small contribution from the employer will be required.

Other Skills Bootcamps are now open, following Wave 4 Department for Education (DfE) funding, include a new green Skills Bootcamp in Air Source Heat Pump Installation & Design.

LEP officials are keen to expand the green skills offering further and are urging local employers and training providers to express an interest in running other green Skills Bootcamps, which could be in areas such as Solar Panel Installation, Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Installation, Low Carbon Energy, Smart Energy, and Retrofit.

It comes amid research from the Construction Industry Training Board, which concluded that to meet net zero aims, 350,000 new roles will need to be created in the UK construction industry.

Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership is also keen to hear from employers about other possible Skills Bootcamps that would help bridge gaps and allow the upskilling of their employees.

Clare Hayward, Cheshire and Warrington LEP Chair said:

“We’re so proud that our region is now able to offer its first ever Skills Bootcamp in care work. We have seen the shortage of skills within this sector and are glad that this programme is now available to help close this gap. 

“Through the Skills Bootcamp programme our local residents are able to retrain and develop vital skills whilst our employers can access a highly skilled workforce helping them to grow and succeed. The programme is crucial to the success of our region and our commitment to creating the most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy in the UK”