Funding of £250k to speed up skills strategy

A three-year strategy to plug skills gaps in the Isle of Man's workforce has been given £250,000 in funding to speed the process up.

The government said the funding would also be used to assist projects that accelerate the delivery of the strategy that are not covered by existing government budgets.

The Skills Strategy, which was approved by Tynwald members in May, sets out four goals including improving the opportunities available to develop available abilities.

Skills Board chairman Peter Reid said the fund would be a "catalyst for action" to roll out projects that would "close the skills gap" in some areas.

Mr Reid said through conversations with businesses the board had heard that many had skills shortages in some form, which was in part down to the change in the skills needed with technology.

A "lot of enablement" was needed to move people from the roles they have done in the past to new ones, and addressing the gaps would be important to meet the government's aim of increasing the working population by 5,000.

He said the funding would be used to pinpoint areas "where we need to educate" as well as the creation of a portal to pull in the skills that are needed on the island, and offer training resources for employers to use.

Education, Sports and Culture Minister Daphne Caine said the board had been created to identify what skills were required and how to reskill, upskill and make training available to enable those looking for jobs to fill the gaps.

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