º£½ÇÊÓÆµ

Oops.

Our website is temporarily unavailable in your location.

We are working hard to get it back online.

PRIVACY
Enterprise

New funding to support 300 tech careers in the West Midlands

Rigby Foundation is working with skills charity to support young people into new careers in the tech industry

Rigby Foundation chairman Steve Rigby says the charity is keen to focus on social mobility as it donates £600,000 to a skills initiative(Image: Handout)

New funding worth £600,000 has been donated with the aim of supporting at least 300 young people into tech careers in the West Midlands.

The capital will be administered by charity Generation º£½ÇÊÓÆµ after it was awarded a grant by The Rigby Foundation.

Youth unemployment is said to be double the national average in Walsall, Wolverhampton and Birmingham and the West Midlands has more than 130,000 people currently unemployed. Of that number, just under 21,000 are aged 16 to 24.

The foundation is the charitable arm of the West Midlands-based Rigby family which owns businesses such as Birmingham IT services provider SCC, a tech investment arm and real estate including Coventry Airport and several hotels.

Generation º£½ÇÊÓÆµ is a Surrey-based charity that supports people across the country, working with the Department for Education on its Skills Bootcamp programme.

The aim is to address persistent unemployment and unmet employer demand in key growth sectors like tech, particularly among people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The charity delivers skills bootcamps in fields such as data engineering and analysis, cyber security, cloud engineering and IT support and also works with employers to place candidates into jobs.