Funding Secured for Free Higher Technical Short Courses at NSCG

Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (NSCG) has secured more than £150,000 of funding from the Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) as part of the government’s Levelling Up agenda to offer a number of free Level 4 Higher Technical courses.

The free courses, which will be available to study at Newcastle College and Stafford College have been developed taking into consideration the key priorities identified through analysis of the labour market, skills and sector-based trends and are aligned with the LSIP priority sectors to improve and develop skills across the region.

The Higher Technical courses available to study with NSCG include short courses from across a range of areas including Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing, Logistics and Distribution, Health Care and Digital Industries and will aim to develop skills across the region in order to support productivity, economic growth and innovation.

Chloe Hudson-Jones, Group Head of Projects at NSCG, said: “We believe in this region and want to do everything that we can to train and upskill our current and future workforce to ensure that we enable communities and people to flourish in life.

“We have worked extremely closely with industry specialists to gain in-depth knowledge of what skills employers are looking for now to enable them to be sustainable to meet future needs. This has then informed the programmes that we have developed.”

NSCG will be launching around 16 Higher Technical short programmes over the next two years with plans in place to add more to the current offering. Aimed at adult learners aged 19+ who are already working in the aforementioned sectors, the first level 4 programmes include; Anatomy and Physiology, Cyber Security in Business, Digital Motion and Manipulation, Fundamentals of Exercise Psychology and Marketing Processes and Planning.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda which will provide £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025, aiming to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.