HARTLEPOOL
Investing in the future
Investment – Hartlepool councillor Pamela Hargreaves and deputy chief people officer at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust Gary Wright in the new health and social care skills academy at the University Hospital of Hartlepool .
How Hartlepool Borough Council is transforming local skills through the power of partnerships
WORDS : PAUL FRASER PICTURE : STUART BOULTON
Hartlepool is building the workforce of tomorrow through exciting , joined up thinking .
Skills academies in civil engineering and health and social care are part of long-term plans being led by Hartlepool Borough Council and partners to ensure people have the right skills and knowledge to make an impact .
The council has forged transformational partnerships to deliver the academies , with substantial funding coming from the £ 25m government-funded Hartlepool Town Deal .
And the two skills academies are part of a wider portfolio focused on improving lives and life chances in Hartlepool by delivering on a promise to produce higher skills .
Councillor Pamela Hargreaves , chair of Hartlepool Borough Council ’ s economic growth and regeneration committee , said : “ Hartlepool is going places . We ’ re investing heavily to change the physical landscape of the town but that ’ s not enough , we need to invest in our people too , equipping them with the skills and knowledge that make them a workforce fit for tomorrow .
“ We want ambitious , fulfilled individuals looking for opportunities and hungry to
Academy – £ 1.25m is being invested to deliver a new training facility within a former ward at the University Hospital of Hartlepool .
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“ We want to build the capacity of our workforce so we can be world leaders in this borough . That may sound ambitious , but why not ? If you are an ambitious company , Hartlepool is the place to be .”
The Health and Social Care Skills Academy is being developed with £ 1.25m of investment to deliver a new training facility within a former ward at the University Hospital of Hartlepool .
The academy will be operated by North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Hartlepool College of Further Education and the council .
Due to open in the autumn , there will be wide-ranging pathways to qualifications and studies will be focused on fully-equipped rooms , replicating various environments that trainees will be working and training in during their careers .
The programme will employ seven members of staff and courses will be phased out in line with the demands and as enrolment numbers grow .
Gary Wright , deputy chief people officer at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust , is leading on the development of the skills academy .
He said : ‘‘ The academy will be a state-ofart health and social care training facility and one of only a handful in the country with purpose-built medical simulation suite .
“ It will allow local people to access high quality training right here in Hartlepool . Our partnership working with Hartlepool Borough Council , the Hartlepool Town
Deal Board and partners has been key to delivering this skills academy .’’
The Tees Valley Civil Engineering Institute academy project is the result of a partnership between the council , Seymour Civil Engineering and Hartlepool College of Further Education , partially funded by £ 2.25m investment from the Hartlepool Town Deal .
The training is delivered at the college ’ s Exeter Street annex as well as Seymour Skills Academy at Brenda Road .
The learner enrolment target by March 2025 was originally set at 1,215 learners and 905 have already signed up , so Hartlepool is already well placed to have the engineers in place to make a difference .
Pamela said : “ We have often lost skills out of the town historically . But we want Hartlepool , with the highly-skilled sectors that it has , with our credentials , to keep our talented people in this area .
“ And an endorsement of what this academy is doing is how Hitachi Rail , Quorn , SeAH Wind and Caterpillar are all using the training facilities to upskill staff .”
She added : “ We want businesses like these to believe in us . They need to know that they can come to Hartlepool and we have the training , the skills and the right mentality to develop the next generation of workers .
“ We are a council that is ambitious and building for growth . These transformational partnerships with Seymour Civil Engineering , our local NHS and Hartlepool Further Education College are just the start of the journey .”
To find out more information on the skills academies please visit yoursay . hartlepool . gov . uk / hub-page / town-deal
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