Levelling Up Funding Set to Bring Tech Jobs to High Unemployment Areas
21 November 2023
Facing widespread scathing criticism regarding the country's prolonged economic stagnation, the UK government has announced several ventures that will result in the realisation of a considerable number of skilled engineering roles, as well as helping to address current STEM education shortfall problems.
In Torbay, Devon, a large proportion of the £20 million that its council has just received in levelling up funds will be invested into an Electronics & Photonics Production Park. With a new purpose-built facility, covering 2,040m², this should lead to a £18 million boost in the area’s gross value added (GVA) figure and result in posts for several hundred people in the near future.
Another £20 million in levelling up funding has been given to the West Yorkshire town of Keighley, in order to build an Advanced Robotics & Engineering Institute. The expectation is that this will translate into somewhere in the region of 700 additional jobs and a revitalisation of the local economy. A well as undertaking research, the institute (which will function in collaboration with Bradford University and Keighley College) is going to conduct training for aspiring robotics engineering students in relation to the latest technological advances.
Finally, a further £20 million has been directed toward Cheltenham. This will be used by its council to strengthen the town’s already widely recognised cybersecurity expertise base by constructing a National Cyber Innovation Centre there. It will be part of the bigger Golden Valley development project, which is expected to create several thousand jobs overall.
