What is the Greater Manchester Further Education Innovation Programme?
The Greater Manchester (GMFEIP) has been funded for one year by Innovate UK through its Further Education Innovation Fund. GMFEIP increases the role of Colleges in promoting and supporting business productivity across Greater Manchester.
Discover more about the Greater Manchester Further Education Innovation Fund here.
Our nine General Further Education colleges have been collectively awarded £2.5m to increase innovation support to businesses throughout the city region.
The programme launched on 1st April 2024, and includes three new initiatives:
You can read more about the vision for the GM FE Innovation Programme in FE Week.
In every Greater Manchester borough, FE Colleges will establish an ‘Innovation Hub’ where you can find our new Business Innovation Advisors and Business Innovation Coordinators. These new innovation teams provide businesses with access to facilities, training and support to navigate the innovation ecosystem.
Meet our Innovation Teams across Greater Manchester.
The Manchester strategy identifies for frontier sectors which will drive the growth of the city regions economy:
We will use the fund to appoint one ‘Innovator in Residence’ for each of these sectors. They’ll identify the emerging technologies and trends and share ‘Innovation Insights’ through a CPD program for College teachers and tech teams, preparing FE in Greater Manchester to meet the challenges of the future and support growth in the region.
Meet our Innovators in Residence.
GM colleges have access to an unparalleled resource of approximately 7000 apprentices placed in GM businesses.
The GM FE Innovation Programme will develop an innovative training resource for apprentices (who are employed in local businesses) to gain an additional certificate in ‘Innovation Literacy’ and become ‘Apprentice Innovation Ambassadors’ who increase the innovation capacity in the SMEs where they are based. We will appoint an Innovation Literacy Coordinator in each college to deliver this training, communicate its value to apprentices and employers and monitor its impact.
Learn more about the the GM Colleges Innovation Literacy project here.
