Between now and 2024 more than half of the 133,000 new jobs projected for the Tees Valley alone are anticipated to need a Level 4 qualification, with further high level skills demand across the rest of the region. Employment figures from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills show that the majority of new jobs in the Tees Valley are likely to be in high-skill managerial, professional and technical occupations – and this trend is reflected at regional and national levels.
Through research-informed continuing professional development, from short courses to full qualifications, CPED is working to help meet that demand.
The first major discipline to be launched is health. To cater for the continuing development needs of the health sector, a suite of new Skills Labs has been created in CPED, replicating the look and feel of hospital and physiotherapy wards to allow NHS workers to train in a perfect simulation of a clinical environment.
The health courses on offer include the Health (Assistant Practitioner) Higher Apprenticeship, and the Nursing Associate Foundation Degree, a national pilot mixing classroom teaching with work placements, and designed to give students the technical knowledge and practical experience they need to be effective in the workplace.
Alongside the health programmes, a range of two-day courses for entrepreneurial leaders and managers will be delivered by Teesside University Business School, with new programmes for the digital, creative and STEM sectors planned for later in the year. To mark the launch of the new centre, Professor Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, the Director of Nursing at Health Education England, unveiled a Clinical Skills Suite which will be used to upskill and train healthcare workers from across the country.
Professor Bayliss-Pratt said: 'Facilities like this are crucial in terms of helping all trainees to learn and develop and to try things out in different ways in order to gain confidence in what they are doing. They are absolutely vital to high quality education and training.'
We are already working with employers across multiple sectors to design and deliver training which meets their demands and the skills needs of their workforce.
Marion Grieves, Dean of the School of Health & Social Care, added: 'This purpose built state-of-the-art facility provides our students with the opportunity to develop their clinical skills using the latest technology and equipment in a dedicated learning environment.
'The Clinical Skills Suite is pivotal to the delivery of the new and exciting Nursing Associate programme delivered in partnership with Health Education England in the North East and Health Care Providers from across the region.'
CPED is based on Central Park in Darlington, also home to CPI’s National Biologics Manufacturing Centre and Darlington College, and the location for the University’s planned £22.3m National Horizons Centre, due to open in 2019.
Central Park offers excellent regional and national transport links, including a mainline rail station and motorway access.
The University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise and Business Engagement) Professor Jane Turner OBE, said: 'We were delighted to formally launch CPED at Darlington. We are already working with employers across multiple sectors to design and deliver training which meets their demands and the skills needs of their workforce, and the new centre is the ideal facility to house these programmes.
'It is anticipated that more than 17,000 of the projected jobs in the Tees Valley between now and 2024 will be new roles, demanding fresh skills and knowledge. 'As an anchor institution for the region, Teesside University takes its role in keeping abreast of these changes in technology and industry very seriously, and CPED will allow companies across the North East and further afield to stay competitive and become more productive.
'The Centre itself will become a regional and national hub of lifelong learning for the professions, offering CPD across disciplines, clearly aligned to regional needs and the relevant pillars of the Modern Industrial Strategy.'