Bolton College leads £1.5m gov health grant across GM colleges

Bolton College (@BoltonCollege) is leading a consortium of nine further education colleges in the Greater Manchester region to enhance links between education providers and employers in the health sector. 

The project is funded by £1.5m from the Government’s Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF), to strategically address the unique skill demands of the Greater Manchester region, as specified by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce as well as local businesses and employers within their Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs). 

The £1.5m of funding for the health initiative forms part of a wider £8.5m LSIF investment for a partnership of 18 Greater Manchester FE colleges. These funds will be used to contribute to the development of new facilities and curricula across the region to meet the evolving skillset demands of sectors including health, digital and construction.

With their portion of the seven-figure grant, the consortium of nine FE colleges, led by Bolton College, will be installing state-of-the-art Anatomage tables in their facilities. These virtual dissection tables will provide students with the ability to visualise and simulate 3D anatomy and physiology, providing a more immersive learning experience for students and a wider range of CPD opportunities for existing NHS staff.

As part of LSIF’s overarching aim to address the national skills gap, Bolton College is also currently working in partnership with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and The Christie Hospital, one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe, to assess the digital competencies of nurses and midwives from across the two facilities. 

This data will then be used to create personalised learning pathways and recommend targeted training programmes that effectively bridge identified skill gaps that exist amongst staff at the two hospitals.

Bolton College’s LSIF work to date marks the latest in a string of successes for the town in its aspiration to become a national centre of excellence for health. As part of the University of Bolton Group, Bolton College has also been central to recent local developments, such as the soon-to-be opened University of Bolton’s Institute of Medical Sciences, which will support 3,000 learners annually.

Catherine Langstreth, Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Stakeholder Engagement at Bolton College adds:

“We’re proud to be leading on the LSIF health initiative for Greater Manchester, to more closely align the needs of employers with the skillsets of our students. 

“As education providers, it’s our duty to ensure local communities are jointly benefitting from our work and these grants will allow colleges, students and employers nationally to realise their collaborative potential, and I’m personally very excited to see where this might lead.”