Delivering for Skills Needs

The changing face of industry

The UK industry is changing at pace. Critical policies, like decarbonisation and electrification, are shaping the country's skills shortage. Our excellence in R&D and innovation enables us to address these emerging needs.

Newcastle University prides itself on its strong regional partnerships. With our partners, we support the future economy and develop new skilled workforces. We work together with other education institutions, regional bodies and industry.

Addressing the skills challenge

Newcastle is leading the Institute of Electrification and Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (IESAM). IESAM is a new institute in the field of Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD). It will provide a flexible, high-quality training pipeline in the region.

We will lead a consortium comprised of key FE and HE providers across the North East region. Bringing together these partners, IESAM will provide coordinated PEMD training:

• to provide ease of access to training at all levels
• to deliver flagship modules and training materials
• with a focus on application, practice and industrial relevance
• to equip learners with enhanced transferrable skills to become industry ready

Skills for a greener future

Our commitment to skills provision is also crucial to the country’s future green economy. Our work positions the North East at the epicentre of these efforts. This includes:

• working with Education Partnership North East, New College Group (NCG) and ORECatapult. We are working on a skills needs analysis on green energy
• developing upskilling courses for FE lecturers in green drives and green power
• discussions with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) on a proposed electrification skills bootcamp

Developing policy

We are now engaging policymakers on the skills agenda. We are keen to ensure that the importance of universities is part of the debate about future skills. We will continue to:

• work with the Lifelong Education Commission on the role of regional education partnerships
• show how our work addresses other priorities like health and social care
• map our skills offer in health and social care in partnership with others
• identify expertise and potential gaps in our regional health and social care offer