Published: Tuesday 11th August 2020 | 3.26pm
News that a new Digital Skills Academy is to be established in Cannock and Tamworth by South Staffordshire College has been welcomed by Cannock Chase Council as it plans for economic recovery in the District.
The new academy is one of 11 `shovel ready` schemes put forward by Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) that have succeeded in attracting a share of the government’s £900million Getting Building Fund that has been announced. The intention is that all projects will be completed by March 2022.
The proposal from South Staffordshire College is to establish Digital Skills Academies at both its Cannock College and Tamworth College sites. Funding of £550,375 has been awarded through the LEP which is administering the scheme locally. The overall project will cost £1.1million.
Councillor Tony Johnson, Portfolio Leader for Economic Development said: “This is a huge boost to improve skills levels in our District and in an area which is expected to create more jobs in the future, not to mention provide highly useful skills away from the workplace.
“It is a project that Council officers have been working with the College on over the past 12 months in order to provide a more comprehensive digital offer locally for business and learners.
“Now approved, a Digital Skills Academy at Cannock College will provide a comprehensive offer for a wide audience including apprentices, adult learners and industry standard specialist technicians.”
The Digital Skills Academy will provide a large number of courses. These include in Essential Digital Skills, cyber security, software development, social media, video production, wireless networks, cloud systems and services, and even ethical hacking practices.The College will be providing a compulsory `Introductory Digital Skills` tutorial for all 16-19 year olds in recognition of the fact that 90% of future jobs will require digital skills.
For a comprehensive list of all the courses being provided through the Digital Skills Academy and at a variety of levels from apprenticeship level to diploma level please visit the College’s web page https://www.southstaffs.ac.uk/get-employed/
Photograph:
Councillor Tony Johnson, Portfolio Leader for Economic Development