Devolution hopes for £22m skills funding

Members of the combined authority are preparing to take control of £22million-a-year in skills funding.

A meeting later this month will outline the devolution steps needed to secure the funding. The move means residents and businesses will have a much bigger say over how skills funding is used in the region, ensuring training and skills provision responds to local needs.

The devolved budget aims to provide adults with the skills and learning they need to equip them for work, an apprenticeship or other learning.

The authority’s cbinet is set to agree a timeline which will see it submit its action plan to the Department for Education later this month, with a view to it being approved by Parliament in the autumn.

Pat Ritchie, interim head of paid service of the North of Tyne Combined Authority, said: “We have made clear from the start that key to the combined authority’s vision is creating the leaders of tomorrow and supporting a hotbed of talent.

“We have ambitious plans to create 10,000 new jobs over the next 30 years and we want people in the North of Tyne to have the right skills and opportunities to fill these roles.

“The devolution of this important budget will allow us to ensure training and skills provision responds to local needs to a much greater extent than is currently the case and will build upon the strong links we already have with local authorities and education providers.”