Workforce and Skills

Skilled Local Workforce

With one of the biggest integrated complexes in the UK, Tees Valley has vast experience in manufacturing, engineering and offshore industries and the area has a readily available, skilled local workforce living within an hour’s drive. Our reputation as a powerhouse in industrial sectors also means that our schools, colleges and further education establishments are focused around training the workforce to meet with the needs of local businesses and the economy. These include Middlesbrough College’s £20million STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) centre that works with local businesses to deliver the world-class training employers need.

Technical Training

The region has a number of world-class training facilities that specialise in technical training for the oil and gas, offshore, engineering and manufacturing sectors. They use real work environments with high-specification equipment that matches that of an industrial setting, ensuring our workforce is equipped with the skills, training and safety awareness needed.

Apprenticeships

Demand for apprenticeships in the area is high, demonstrating the appetite for practical skills and training. There are a number of training providers based in the region, including Falck Nutec, a leading health and safety training provider for the offshore sector; TTE, the UK’s largest technical training organisation in the engineering, process and offshore sectors; NETA, who provide fully accredited courses and apprenticeships in the engineering and offshore sectors, and TWI, a global leader in technology and engineering services.

Further Education

Tees Valley has five first-class further education colleges geared towards providing local businesses with the skills they need. Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton Riverside Colleges all deliver employer-led technical training courses from state-of-the-art facilities across the region, with specialisms varying from chemical and process to subsea, aircraft maintenance to fabrication and welding.

Tees Valley is also home to the Northern School of Art, the leading provider of creative art and design degrees in the North. The Northern School of Art supports industry specialists by providing the highest quality of art & design teaching, ensuring students are equipped for employment and enterprise in the creative industries.

Download the FE prospectus here

Skills for Business

But we don’t just specialise in industrial skills and education, we also have superb, nationally recognised training institutes in our key growth sectors, including healthcare, biologics and digital. Teesside University is a key asset for the area, working with local employers to deliver sector-related courses and initiatives that support the local economy. It has recently won national acclaim at the 2018 Enterprising Britain Awards for Improving the Business Environment, which recognised initiatives that support business and innovation growth such as DigitalCity, a long-standing programme to build the region’s digital capacity, and the National Horizons Centre, a major new bioscience research, teaching and training facility that will transform the bio-industries sector.