Cities To Benefit From £4.5m Skills Fund

The Government has announced a £4.5 million fund for England’s biggest cities and colleges to work together to boost adult skills across the country.

The City Skills Fund will be available to the eight core cities in England, plus London, and their surrounding local enterprise partnership (LEP) areas.

Each city will receive around £500,000 to address skills priorities across their regions. The City Skills Fund will help cities and LEPs work with local colleges and independent providers to boost the provision of skills needed by local employers. The Government is also challenging cities to develop apprenticeship city hubs which will help local businesses, particularly small businesses, to take on apprentices.

Cities Minister Greg Clark said: "The City Skills Fund will see our core cities working in partnership with local colleges to ensure employers in their area have access to people with the right skills to help them thrive and grow. We are giving cities the chance to build the skills they think are most important.

"This is another example of how the Government is putting cities back in charge of their own economic destiny, allowing them to drive growth and create jobs."

(GK)