David Kidney’s blog: November 2024
November 2024
The Cluster worked jointly with the skills team at the West Midlands Combined Authority to organise a skills seminar for HealthTech SMEs at the beginning of December 2024. Two dozen people gathered at Matthew Boulton College (with thanks to BMET for providing this excellent venue) for a very focused session of giving information, discussing it and receiving feedback.
Big picture, we are looking to promote growth in HealthTech businesses in the West Midlands, and with growth, we can anticipate a rising demand for HealthTech skills. Here we were, alerting SMEs in the sector to our common interest in expanding the pipeline of talent and assuring them that support is on hand to help them to access the skills they will need at the time when they will need them. But we have to start now.
A really important feature of the skills seminar was the assurance that we and the Combined Authority can offer are on the case. The information we were able to share with our audience was not just about the national position regarding skills, for example, the proposed Industrial Strategy, Skills England and a reformed Growth and Skills Levy. It was also about what we in our region can do for ourselves, in fact, are doing for ourselves.
As an example, yes, the new Government plans to reform apprenticeships and promote them strongly, and we will join in the push to recruit more people (of all working ages) into apprenticeships with HealthTech employers in the West Midlands. But additionally, and exclusively here in the West Midlands, we can offer young people between the ages of 19 and 29, who have never had the habit of regular working, or have fallen out of the workforce, an intensive pre-apprenticeship training course to make them “apprenticeship ready”.
This is our region’s Path 2 Apprenticeships initiative, backed by £7.5M in its first three years of operation. Young people on the pre-apprenticeship training course keep their benefits while training (or get a bursary if they are not in receipt of benefits). Employers commit to interview those who successfully complete the training course when recruiting apprentices and also commit to paying at least the National Minimum Wage.
The Cluster is supporting Path 2 Apprenticeships in the HealthTech sector and encouraging HealthTech employers to give it their support also.
Bootcamps are now firmly established nationally and there have been many bootcamps in the West Midlands – but none has yet been in HealthTech in our region. We want to change this. So at the skills seminar, there was a presentation confirming that funding is available to support bootcamps for training, upskilling and reskilling for HealthTech jobs. The Cluster will support the employers and the training providers in recruiting cohorts of workers for bootcamps.
Our audience was particularly excited with our region’s pioneering development of a new MedTech qualification at Level 4. Designed to support flexible learning, the curriculum for this new qualification will allow for modular learning and the ability to step on and step off as fits the learner’s needs. The research at the outset established that there is a significant shortage of Level 4 skills in our regional economy and jobs open to people with Level 4 skills are well paid.
We have reached the stage in the new qualification’s development where it is ready for piloting with learners and employers and a well-known provider is in talks to deliver the pilot. At the skills seminar, the employers present welcomed this initiative, one that puts the West Midlands ahead of the field, and called for this approach to be extended in due course to form an apprenticeship as well.
Bringing all this together, we and the Combined Authority have been working on a Skills Framework for our region’s HealthTech sector. The Framework will catalogue the kinds of HealthTech jobs available in our region, the skills requirements for them, the training provision available (inhouse, HE, FE and private providers), and act as a tool for monitoring and surveillance of the sector’s skills needs.
Personally, I am grateful to the Combined Authority for help with putting on this skills seminar, and I would pick out for special praise James Tallentire, who helped me throughout the planning, preparation and delivery. I am also very grateful to College Principal, Pat Carvalho, and her team for the venue’s great facilities and the College’s friendly and efficient service.
As for next steps, the Cluster will continue to work with the Combined Authority in 2025 on:
Launching the Skills Framework for our region’s HealthTech sector.
Building up HealthTech employers’ support for Path 2 Apprenticeships;
Bringing bootcamps to HealthTech in our region;
Piloting the new MedTech Level 4 qualification, with support from HealthTech employers; and
Launching the Skills Framework for our region’s HealthTech sector.