Business

The new training programme that will ‘plug the skills gap’ for around 2000 Mancs

UK Skills Academy, a digital and cyber security training provider, has been awarded a lead partner role in the £2m Digital Skills for Growth & Productivity contract, to lead Greater Manchester's ESF Skills For Growth programme.

The Manc The Manc - 20th January 2022

A new range of flexible training programmes from UK Skills Academy will give around 2,000 people in Greater Manchester access to free flexible training across a range of digital programmes

The brand-new programme will help to address a shortage in digital skills in the region.

It’s hoped it will ‘plug the skills gap’ that has been identified following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The three-year Skills For Growth programme will help thousands of individuals and Greater Manchester-based SMEs to thrive, moving their businesses online and learn new digital skills to improve productivity.

Credit: UK Skills Academy

The free training will be flexible, remote, online and will provide the required skills and knowledge to support growth and productivity, such as digital marketing for business, digital transformation for leaders and managers, cyber security practices for business and much more.

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They will help business leaders to move their services and products online, and help individuals to develop skills like data analysis, cyber security and digital marketing.

The two-strand programme will support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the city-region.

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It’s been hailed as a ‘truly employer-led’ venture that will directly help local businesses to access the best, and most needed, resources.

Credit: UK Skills Academy

UK Skills Academy offers digital and cyber apprenticeships and training, with the learner at the heart of everything they do.

Their mission is to teach people the digital skills that are needed in modern work environments, working with businesses to design and implement apprenticeships.

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The academy can even offer businesses bespoke programmes to fit with employers’ needs.

Speaking of UK Skills Academy’s appointment as the lead partner of the Skills for Growth programme, its MD Gemma Beech said the academy is ‘delighted’.

Read more: All the Plan B restrictions that have ended in England from today

She said: “Our own experience and high-quality digital provision, along with our selected partners, are the right fit to respond to the needs of Greater Manchester’s digital skills shortages.

“Employers have consistently reported that they need support in developing technical skills and that demand industry-wide is expected to keep on growing.

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“We have a wealth of experience, innovative ideas and proven success in this sector and are looking forward to welcoming our learners.”

To find out more about Digital Skills Growth & Productivity, or see what UK Skills Academy has to offer, visit uk-skillsacademy.co.uk or express an interest here and one of the team will be in touch https://forms.office.com/r/pWbX7xvLZh

Featured image: UK Skills Academy

Business

A groundbreaking new multi-use entertainment and leisure venue is coming to Manchester

Danny Jones Danny Jones

A new multi-purpose food, drink, entertainment and leisure destination is coming to Manchester city centre and the Salford border this autumn, and you won’t find many places that roll so much into one spot.

Mancs, get ready to welcome ‘Tangerine’.

Conceived by an impressive collective of local creatives, indies and those with plenty of experience catering to the Northern masses, Tangerine is promising everything from multiple resident kitchens, a live music hall, an arthouse stage, a specialist martini bar and more.

Better yet, after a year in the making and quietly chipping away at the striking space, it opens later this month, so you don’t have to wait long to try it for yourselves.

Located on New Bailey Street, just on the edge of Spinningfields and Salford Central, this groundbreaking new venue features two main platforms (utilising the integrated charm of the historic railway arches), each boasting its own selection of attractions.

While platform one will offer a bakery, coffee roastery, wine store and bottle ship, the ‘Canteen Club’ and even a florist, number two will contain the music hall, arthouse stage and the stylish ‘Grand Departures’ bar – serving seven espresso martini alone – Tangerine will deliver a seamless day to night transition.

Arguably, however, the centrepiece is the ‘Cantina Collective’. The food and drink hall promises seven in-house kitchens, showcasing a variety of cuisines.

The opening line-up already confirmed includes Vanda: a family-run Parisian-inspired Ukrainian bakery; Mexican taqueria, PANTERA, burger joint Juicy, as well as Yo Dutchie (a unique fusion of Dutch-Japanese food) and a new Korean/ramen concept from local sushi favourites, Unagi.

Our stomachs are already grumbling just thinking about it.

Tangerine Manchester
tangerine mcr
CGI renders of the completed space. (Credit: Supplied)

Designed not only by the brains behind Northern Quarter’s beloved Mala hidden garden but WANT STUDIOS, who will be ensuring local artists, independents, and traders will be regularly spotlighted, the site will boast a capacity of well over 300 people.

Artyom Dmitrijev, owner of Tangerine and Mala, said in a statement: “Over a year in the making, we’ve used all our experience in design, interiors, architecture and hospitality to create our dream project. A place for all the independents to come together and thrive.”

Andy Windsor, Director of WANT STUDIOS, added: “Tangerine unites the city’s independent kitchens, bar tenders, bakeries and entertainment specialists. It is a unique showcase of what we do in the city. This is a new space for creativity, food, and culture, and we’re proud to be part of it.”

Debuting to the public with a big Halloween weekender on the evening of Friday, 31 October, with another launch event the following Saturday, you can sign up for exclusive early access for free, which could see you score a few freebies to boot.

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For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Press shots (supplied)/Tangerine MCR (via Instagram)

Business

First vendors confirmed Glossop Market Hall, including two indie Manc traders

Danny Jones Danny Jones First Glossop Market Hall traders confirmed

The first vendors for the upcoming Glossop Market Hall have been announced, and the lineup includes two beloved Greater Manchester independent businesses.

Better still, the third is another noteworthy name from the North West.

Glossop Market Hall is scheduled to launch later this year, setting up shop in the historic town hall complex, where the High Peak Borough Council, a retail shopping arcade and various other municipal buildings have stood in various different iterations for nearly well over a century.

With the Derbyshire town set to celebrate the opening of the newly revamped market hall, those behind the new Glossop attraction have now revealed the first three names set to take up residence there.

As you can see, the biggest names already signed on to cook from one of the six kitchens is a Manchester favourite food hall in its own right: Hello Oriental.

The Pan-Asian paradise not only has a subterranean space below Circle Square, but also at The Trafford Centre, as well as a dessert spin-off in Freight Island.

Indie trader number two comes in the form of B&V Trading, who are based at Stanley Square in Sale and specialise in eco-friendly, UK-made treats, toys and essentials for four-legged friends.

After proving a hit with the locals, their small stall at nearby Altrincham Market has grown to see them open up not just a second site in the leafy Cheshire suburbs of Knutsford back in 2022, but now boast a third location in neighbouring Macclesfield.

Speaking of Macc, local gin and whisky makers, Forest Distillery – based up at the famous Cat and Fiddle Inn pub towards the Peaks – they round out the first wave of regional businesses set to pop up in Glossop Market Hall (GMH) when it finally arrives this winter.

Credit: B&V Trading/Forest Distillery (via IG)/The Manc Eats

And once again, as the update on social media reads: “This is just the beginning”.

Natives, day-trippers and tourists from all over are bound to visit this place when it opens sometime in November (exact date still TBC), and with space not only for a dedicated bar, dining space and a coffee shop, but a total of 17 retail spaces, we can’t wait to see what comes next.

GMH becomes just the latest among a growing trend of food and drink halls popping up all over our part of the country, with virtually every Greater Manchester borough now boasting at least one of their own – or, in the city centre’s case, what feels like a dozen now.

Exhibit number… not sure, we’ve lost track at this point.

Plans lodged to turn Ducie Street Warehouse into huge food hall

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — High Peak Borough Council

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