Scarborough’s Skills Village is to reopen as part of a £5 million boost to help more learners take up careers in construction across the county.
The plans were approved by Mayor David Skaith and members of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s cabinet at a meeting on Friday, October 2.
Up to £2 million has been approved for the reopening of Scarborough’s Construction Skills Village, subject to a full business case, and £1 million will go towards creating a new construction training facility linked directly to York Central as the site develops.
Both the Scarborough and York training centres will be open for technical education training and apprenticeships, as well as adult retraining and upskilling.
A further £2 million will help training providers to upgrade their facilities and purchase specialist equipment to support growth sectors, which include clean energy, life sciences, rail innovation and sustainable agriculture.
David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, said: “We’re going to build 60,000 new homes so we’re going to need a lot of brickies, sparkies, joiners, and more. That’s why we’re creating more opportunities for young people and those wanting to reskill to get into the building trades.
“Two new construction skills villages are going to create thousands of highly talented tradies to build the homes our county urgently needs.”
Plans to reopen the skills village received strong backing from coastal councillors at a meeting in Whitby on Wednesday, September 30.
Conservative councillor Derek Bastiman, who represents Scalby and the Coast, said: “The Construction Skills Village is very close to me and the others in this room.”
“I fully supported that from day one in Scarborough.
“The opportunities with the Construction Skills Village, when we visited it, were tremendous.”
“There were children who had been excluded from local schools, and by and large, they were doing a good job of it there.”
The funding will build on Mayor David Skaith’s Cradle to Career work, which is a long-term ambition to give every child and young person the opportunity to thrive from birth through education and into the workplace.
North Yorkshire Council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said: “We want to ensure all our communities have the very best opportunities with skills and training available to help them pursue the careers that they want to.
“This important capital investment in Scarborough will help to deliver fit-for-purpose facilities to provide those opportunities along the coast and drive forward the economy both locally and across the region.
“The additional £2 million in funding for skills providers will target training across sectors that show huge potential for growth, including clean energy, life sciences, rail innovation and sustainable agriculture.”
Funded through York and North Yorkshire’s Local Growth Fund, the plans are designed to enable growth ambitions in Scarborough and York, which have been designated as Mayoral Development Zones (MDZs).
MDZs are a key tool available to Mayors through devolution to designate areas as a priority for development. They allow the Mayor to take a lead in bringing together developers, landowners and the local authority to attract private sector investment and align public sector funding.
An initial £10 million MDZ Regeneration Fund has been set out to kickstart the next phases of development and to unlock further government and private investment to accelerate delivery.
By: Anttoni James Numminen, LDRS
