A successful skills seminar for HealthTech SMEs.
This December, we and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) jointly delivered a skills seminar for HealthTech SMEs at Matthew Boulton College.
Big picture, we are looking to promote growth in HealthTech businesses in the West Midlands, and with growth, we can anticipate a rising demand for HealthTech skills. We share with SMEs in the sector a common interest in expanding the pipeline of talent through a joint endeavour.
At the skills seminar, we and WMCA were providing a lead. The information we were able to share with our audience was about the national position regarding skills AND the regional initiatives we are fronting.
National developments include the proposed Industrial Strategy, Skills England and a reformed Growth and Skills Levy. Read on for our regional enhancements and additional measures.
The new Government plans to reform apprenticeships, and we will join in the push to recruit more people (of all working ages) into apprenticeships with HealthTech employers in the West Midlands. But additionally, and exclusively here in the West Midlands, we can offer young people between the ages of 19 and 29, who have never had the habit of regular working, or have fallen out of the workforce, an intensive pre-apprenticeship training course to make them “apprenticeship ready”.
This is our region’s Path 2 Apprenticeships, backed by £7.5M of funding. Young people on pre-apprenticeship training can keep their benefits while training (or get a bursary if they are not in receipt of benefits). Employers commit to interview those who successfully complete the training course when recruiting apprentices and also commit to paying at least the National Minimum Wage.
The Cluster is supporting Path 2 Apprenticeships in the HealthTech sector and encouraging HealthTech employers to give it their support also.
Bootcamps are well established, nationally and here in the West Midlands. But to date there have been none in HealthTech in our region. We want to change this. So at the skills seminar, there was confirmation of a willingness and funding to support bootcamps for training, upskilling and reskilling for HealthTech jobs.
The Cluster will support the employers and the training providers in recruiting cohorts of workers for bootcamps.
We are particularly proud of our region’s pioneering development of a new MedTech qualification at Level 4. Designed to support flexible learning, this new qualification allows for modular learning and step-on/step-off as fits the learner’s needs. This qualification is ready to be piloted here in the West Midlands.
Bringing all this together, we and WMCA have been working on a Skills Framework for our region’s HealthTech sector.
In 2025, the Cluster will work with WMCA to build support for Path 2 Apprenticeships, bring bootcamps to HealthTech in our region, pilot the new MedTech Level 4 qualification, and launch the Skills Framework for our region’s HealthTech sector.
