Working across four activity strands including up-skilling of the existing workforce, apprenticeships, school engagement and Skills Factory communication, the Black Country Skills Factory has achieved the following:
• The Black Country Skills Factory has engaged 800 businesses (especially in Manufacturing) to ensure that across each activity strand the Skills Factory is Employer led in relation to upskilling.

• The Skills Factory has brokered and arranged funding for 2000 plus bite sized upskilling courses in both technical & managerial topics across the five transformational sectors, delivered by local providers. 275 Black Country businesses have one or more employees trained through a Skills Factory course.

• Over the last five years, the Skills Factory has brought together a unique partnership of education and employment, along with obtaining funding for the newly completed Elite Centre for Manufacturing Skills. The ECMS will function as an employer-led training facility for the Black Country, designed to improve productivity and growth in the high value manufacturing sector. A physical manifestation of the activity the Skills Factory has been delivering across the area in ensuring the project will deliver provision that doesn’t currently exist in the Black Country.

• The Skills Factory has promoted and supported the expansion of high value Engineering Apprenticeships across the Black Country with apprenticeships in this sector doubling during the last five years.

• Since 2016 the Black Country Skills Factory have established the Enterprise Adviser Network in senior schools resulting in 80 senior level business people now working one-to-one with the senior leadership teams at every Black Country secondary school supported by a team of Enterprise Coordinators.

The Skills Factory’s success has seen them identified as a ‘beacon’ area in then Country by the Careers and Enterprise Company resulting in the Black Country Careers Hub pilot project, one of 20 in the country looking to accelerate the quality of careers education in senior schools and academies, with 36 currently participating in the Hub.

Colin Parker, Black Country Skills Factory Director said: “The Black Country Skills Factory has had a fantastic impact over the last five years across careers education in the Black Country. From working with businesses to ensure we are helping them to address skills shortages through creating the right courses for employees to working with young people to help them understand all the possible careers path and the best ways they can be supported into work.”