North of Tyne Combined Authority and North East LEP Wave 3 Skills Bootcamp

Skills bootcamps are one part of the National Skills Fund, a £2.5 billion initiative to help adults train and gain skills quickly to improve their job prospects.

The bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks for adults aged 19 or over who are either in work, self-employed, recently unemployed or returning to work after a break.

NTCA and the NELEP have secured a combined £7.4m directly from the Department for Education to support the delivery of Skills Bootcamps in the NTCA region and wider NELEP geography. This is a significant investment in our region and has the potential to deliver new opportunities to generations of adult who may have been previously left behind.

Skills Bootcamps aim to secure benefits for adults aged 19+ by giving them access to in-demand skills training and a guaranteed interview for a more sustainable, higher-skilled job and higher wages over time. The benefits for employers include helping them fill specific skills shortage vacancies, enabling them to become more productive, more quickly.

The overall aims of the Skills Bootcamps are:

• to deliver flexible training programmes lasting up to 16 weeks, based on employer / sector ‘in-demand’ skills needs which may be either regulated (i.e. qualification based) or non-regulated (e.g. based on alignment with industry standards) enabling adults (19+) to do training around work and other commitments, looking to gain work, additional responsibilities, or access new opportunities and will offer a guaranteed job interview (in the case of a new job) to individual participants on completion of the course;
• to address the needs of adults (19+) who are full-time and part-time employed, unemployed, returning to work after a break or self-employed, and provide individuals with wider access to opportunities to retrain, update or formalise their skills or acquire specialist skills;
• to address the needs of employers and the wider economy, to deliver targeted interventions to meet short-medium term demand to fill vacancies and drive productivity. They will help fill medium-higher level vacancies and bring individuals closer to better jobs, by linking them with line of sight to a job/ different role, additional responsibilities or new opportunities/contracts; and
• to help fill vacancies and bring individuals closer to better jobs (including those currently in employment), by linking them with line of sight to a job / different role, additional responsibilities, or new opportunities / contracts.

We are keen to see innovative proposals of realistic and sustainable options that demonstrate commitment from all sides to a successful outcome.

The initial estimated total value of this procurement (across Lots 1 to 10 inclusive) is £7.4 million. The total value of the procurement to include any future contract extensions or variations is £ 29.4 million this is based on the initial period plus 2 x 12 month extensions and a potential additional £2.4 million per annum for the NE LEP Lot 10