New Skills Academy For Social Care Launched

Dragon’s Den entrepreneur and self-made millionaire Peter Jones, is to lead a new ‘Skills Academy’ for enterprise alongside one that could revitalise the social care workforce.

The Department of Universities, Innovation and Skills (DIUS) is setting up the four new Skills Academies, which also include one for IT and one for electrical engineering, backed with £30m.

The National Skills Academy for Social Care will benefit a projected 58,000 learners during its first few years of operation. The Academy will aim ot raise standards by giving social core staff, new starters, leaders and managers training and support throughout their careers.

Skills Secretary John Denham, who gave the Academies the green light said: ‘Now, more than ever before, we need to develop innovative training that inspires and empowers a new generation to realise their ambitions. Skills academies put employers in the driving seat to shape training for their industries, building the world-beating workforce that will improve productivity and competitiveness across the country.’

Entrepreneur Peter Jones, who led the bid for the Enterprise Academy, said the new Academies would ‘equip the next generation of young people with the skills and confidence they will need to succeed’.

Skills for Care chief executive, Andrea Rowe, sat on the steering group that drove the project forward and attended today’s launch.

She said: ‘There’s no doubt that this is a massive step forward in making sure we have a skills academy that can deliver high quality support to 38,000 social care employers and nearly 1.4 million social care workers.’

‘Social care is a huge driving force in the British economy and we need all the resources we can get to upskill the workforce. I’m confident the Skills Academy is a wise investment that will help make sure people who use services get high quality care wherever they live.’