Geoff Meacock – Innovate UK Monitoring Officer, Coral Grainger – GMColleges Innovation Project Director and Richard Caulfield – GMColleges Senior Policy Manager
Our nine Further Education colleges are celebrating a significant achievement — an incredible £2.5 million in additional funding has been awarded, following the success of the Greater Manchester Further Education Innovation Programme pilot!
Thanks to continued support from Innovate UK’s Further Education Innovation Fund, the programme is now entering its exciting second year. This new round of funding will empower our colleges to continue to increase the role of Further Education Colleges in the expansion of innovation support to improve productivity across Greater Manchester.
The initial investment enabled several new initiatives to be introduced such as the creation of Innovation Hubs in each of the ten boroughs in Greater Manchester, all of which are supported by Innovation Teams who are on hand to help local employers to build their innovation journey.
‘Innovators in Residence’ have delivered high quality CPD to college staff across the region’s frontier sectors – Advanced Materials & Manufacturing, Health Innovation and Life Sciences, Digital and Creative and Clean Growth to ensure training meets the current and future needs of businesses.
While an Innovation Literacy Training course has been developed and accredited by OCN London, training Greater Manchester apprentices from all sectors of business to become ambassadors for innovation within their organisations.
Anna Dawe, GMColleges Chair, explains, “The ongoing support and recognition from Innovate UK stands as a powerful endorsement of the dedication and hard work across our nine colleges and their teams. The achievements delivered in such a short time through this programme are truly outstanding, and I’m excited to see the continued impact as we move into year two.”
Coral Grainger, GM Further Education Innovation Programme Director, commented “Firstly, I want to thank the Innovation Teams across our nine Further Education colleges. This first year has been exceptional, with so many impactful initiatives brought to life, hundreds of businesses supported and over one hundred apprentices trained so far.
“In Year 2, we’ll continue to make local connections with SMEs in the towns and boroughs of Greater Manchester, helping them to embrace innovation and drive productivity forward. We can directly support businesses through our college teams, training and facilities, or help them access innovation support from our partners across GM.”
Apprentice Innovation Ambassadors receiving their certificates
The Greater Manchester Further Education Innovation Programme is one part of Innovate UK’s pilot Further Education Investment Fund programme. The innovation agency has announced £7 million of funding to extend its pilot programme that aims to shape the future of the UK’s industrial strategy into 2026.
Dr Rosanna Peacock, Lead Specialist – Innovation Skills at Innovate UK said, “We are delighted that funding has been secured to continue the FEIF pilot in Greater Manchester. The work the colleges are doing through Greater Manchester FE Innovation is demonstrating the valuable role FE can play within local innovation ecosystems. The Innovators in Residence and Apprentice Innovation Ambassadors initiatives are unique approaches to supporting local business innovation, and we are excited to see the project progress and evolve in year two.”
