A collaboration of local colleges, led by Leicester College, has been awarded a grant of £3 million from the Department for Education’s Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF) to fund a range of new projects focused on decarbonising transportation, encouraging green leadership skills, digital upskilling and employer skills training.

The collaboration includes Leicester College, Loughborough College, North Warwickshire & South Leicestershire College and SMB College Group.

More than £200 million has been announced as part of a funding boost to support colleges and training providers to offer more high-quality training opportunities in key industries, including the green sector. Leicester College will receive a part of the £165 million funding to work collaboratively to meet the employer skills needs identified in the local area’s Local Skills Improvement Plans. This will provide local businesses with access to the skilled workforce they need to grow.

The funding will support four key projects:

Decarbonising Transportation: Delivering skills training through seven new LSIF-enabled courses for industry at levels 3 and 4, covering current and future green transport technologies to drive a step-change in becoming Carbon Neutral.

Green Leadership Skills (Cross-sector): The collaborative development of short contextualised, level 3 courses including a new ‘Green Leadership Health Check Tool’ for leaders, managers and decision-making staff within organisations to assess the viability of implementing sustainable energy/waste/building technologies.

Digital Upskilling: Creating easy-access, flexible, short courses/units/modules between levels 3-5 for Digital Skills in business, including digital marketing, social media, cloud computing, data analytics and an introduction to Artificial Intelligence.

Employer Skills Training (including Harborough): Reviewing Further Education training options across Harborough and the surrounding districts. This will include adult provision and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) across Leicestershire. The project will include a Training Needs Analysis and a review of travel to learn times/zones and options across Leicester and Leicestershire.

The College will also receive a share of £44 million from the Skills Injection Fund to support more people to take the Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQ) to gain in demand skills including digital, health care and engineering as an alternative to a traditional three-year degree.

Verity Hancock, Principal of Leicester College, said: “We are thrilled to have been chosen to receive a share of the LSIF. As the leading local provider of training and apprenticeships, the funding will enable us to continue to invest in our vocational training programmes and develop relationships with local businesses. This will ensure that our students have access to the best industry-wide employment opportunities and that employers can work with highly skilled young people and adults.”