Region’s first-ever Skills Bootcamp in care work to open next week

Warrington is to be home to the region’s first-ever Skills Bootcamp in care work, allowing people in the sector to fast-track their way up the ladder thanks to funding secured by the Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

In March, it was revealed that Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership had secured £1.2m in funding as part of the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, helping everyone gain skills for life. This funding will help to train over 350 people across the region via Skills Bootcamps.

Covering a wide range of areas such as green skills, digital skills, logistics, and skills in the rail sector, these flexible 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.

They also give local residents the chance to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to a guaranteed interview or access new roles and opportunities with their current employer.

Today it was confirmed that as part of the LEP-secured funding, Warrington & Vale Royal College will, from Monday 12th June, be running 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. 

Based at the college’s state-of-the-art Health & Social Care Academy, which features an independent living flat and a simulation hospital ward, the course covers a raft of topic areas including safeguarding, dementia, mental health conditions, and key legislation in the health and social care sector. Participants will also undertake basic clinical care skills to put what they have learned into practice.

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.

Warrington & Vale Royal College said it was delighted to be on board with the Skills Bootcamp programme.

Central to the college’s ethos is providing opportunities to adults to retrain and upskill, as well as working closely with employers to ensure their skills needs and gaps are met.

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”

The Skills Bootcamps are available for adults aged 19 and over, who either live or work in Cheshire and Warrington, and who have the right to work in the UK, and therefore can be employed, self-employed or unemployed.

To find out more, whether you are interested as a potential training provider, as an employer or as an individual, go to Skills Bootcamps - Cheshire and Warrington.