The North of Tyne Adult Education Budget (AEB) has empowered over 25,500 people with opportunities to increase their skills following its first year of delivery.

The AEB has enabled adults across North of Tyne to access education and skills opportunities, including:

  • 20% of enrolment opportunities in the Health & Social Care sector due to an increase in demand, an increase of 5% on the previous year
    a 29% increase in the number of enrolments in English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) compared to the previous year (4900 in total)
    An 11% increase in the number of opportunities at GCSE A*–C (or 4-9) equivalent or above compared to last year.

Councillor Karen Kilgour, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Economy said:  “Local control of the Adult Education Budget has meant we have been able to respond to existing skills challenges as well as the impact of COVID.

“We’ve given over 25,500 residents the opportunity to access more and better jobs across the region.   This supports our strategic skills plan ambitions, as well as building the high skill, high wage, low carbon economy our region needs.”

This is a great start to ensure our residents and businesses are best equipped to deal with today’s competitive jobs market and the challenges yet to come.

Further details on the Skills challenges facing the region, how we’re going to meet these, and how you can get involved, are detailed in ‘Opportunity for All – Strategic Skills Plan’.