Scarborough's Construction Village receives £900,000 to fund apprenticeships

A Scarborough project has been awarded £900,000 of government funding for its work to tackle unemployment in the community.
Scarborough's Skills Village receives 900,000 of government fundingScarborough's Skills Village receives 900,000 of government funding
Scarborough's Skills Village receives 900,000 of government funding

Scarborough’s Construction Skills Village is one of 16 ‘Fast Track’projects in England benefiting from the Coastal Communities Fund, a £6 million scheme designed to help deliver sustainable growth and jobs across the coast.

Graham Ratcliffe, Managing Director at the Middle Deepdale site, said: “We’re very pleased, it’s a major achievement.

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"The money will be used to pay for the wages of up to 50 construction apprentices to ensure that we get people in the industry to reduce the existing skill gap.

“We’re a small company and we’ve only been going for three years but we’ve made a major impact in the construction industry in Scarborough.

“This is just another opportunity to make that impact greater and benefit the whole borough.”

Coastal Communities Minister, Jake Berry MP, commented: “It’s really exciting to see money from the Coastal Communities Fund help kick start these shovel ready projects, which have the potential to unlock the barriers to development and growth in our coastal communities.”

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In this year’s Spring Statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond MP announced the government’s commitment to supporting construction skills villages through the £29 million construction skills fund, which opened for bids in April 2018 with the aim to set up up to 20 construction skills villages across the country.

Mr Radcliffe added: “We’ve had MPs visiting, people from the Construction Industry Training Board and they’ve all been saying how fantastic this is and that it’s just what the industry requires.”

The main round funding will become available in April 2019 and is expected to last for the next three years.