Date published: 2024-11-08 | Category: Preparing for the Future, Regeneration and Development
Specialist skills training support brokered by Bath & North East Somerset Council has helped an award-winning engineering business upskill staff and create new jobs.
Bridges Electrical Engineers, based on the Westfield Industrial Estate, were struggling to find the right employees to meet workload and needed additional training support.
Through the council’s Business and Skills Team the company secured Skills Bootcamp funding from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority.
The funding so far has seen more than 70 existing staff upskilled and 36 unemployed learners have also been able to attend the bootcamps, with 14 of those unemployed learners going on to gain long-term employment with the company.
It has allowed Bridges to create an in-house training facility delivering training in mechanical and electrical installation, hazardous area working, off-site manufacturing and assembly, authentic leadership, mechanical design dual-skilling, electrical design dual-skilling and project management.
Steve Spencer, Safety, Health, Environment & Quality Director at Bridges said: “We sought support from the council’s Business and Skills team. They worked with us to find the right funding and how to apply for it. Skills Bootcamp has been an extremely effective way of upskilling staff and move people into higher paid work, releasing entry-level jobs for new recruits. We are very pleased with the outcome.”
Councillors Paul Roper, Cabinet Member for Economic and Cultural Sustainable Development and Councillor Paul May, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, were hosted by Bridges on tour of the business, where they met the senior leadership team and young people who have benefitted from the training.
Councillor Roper said: “Our Business and Skills team works with employers to help deliver sustainable and inclusive growth and this is a great example of how we can successfully support both residents and business to meet their full economic potential, upskill and see job growth in our area.
“Championing good work practices, increasing inclusive pathways into work, as well as helping businesses to access the skills they need are among the actions in our Economic Strategy so it’s encouraging to see this happening in the workplace.”
Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with an employer. The training is funded through the Department of Education's, National Skills Fund and forms part of the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, helping everyone gain Skills for Life. In B&NES they are administered by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority.
Councillor Paul May added: “Thank you to Bridges for hosting our visit. It was helpful to understand how local business are using Skills Bootcamp funding to support young employees starting out in their careers and help other staff progress in their learning through this flexible training programme.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
Bridges Electrical provide Mechanical & Electrical engineering services primarily to the UK Water industry. Offering comprehensive in-house design, manufacture and installation services; Bridges, is a trusted high performance and multi-disciplined MEICA engineering technology company with an established and long-term client base.
Supporting residents to access and thrive in good work is a key action of Bath and North East Somerset’s Economic Strategy 2024-2034. The strategy sets out our approach to delivering the Future Ambition Board’s ambition for our area to fair, green, creative and connected.
More information on the Economic Strategy can be found here https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/B%26NES-Economic-Strategy-2024-2034.pdf
More information about the Future Ambition Board can be found here https://futureambitionbath.com/”