The South West advanced engineering sector has received nearly £4million to tackle skills shortages faced by the industry.  
 
Called 'A Journey Through Engineering', the 3-year project will address the sector's long and short-term skills needs by working with schools, employers and individuals to equip the present and future workforce with the right skills needed at each stage of their career.  
 
The project plans to address the difficult issue of the long term needs by raising awareness of engineering as a career in schools, colleges and universities to ensure the region has an ample supply of highly skilled engineers in the future.  
 
The South West RDA provided £2million towards the unique public and private sector project which originated from an RDA report on skills shortages in the engineering sector that revealed 65 per cent of all job vacancies require a higher level of skill than is currently available. The remainder of funding comes from participating schools, colleges, universities, companies and the sector's project partnership. 
 
The Engineering Employers Federation Western (EEF Western) will manage the multi-faceted project and the region's engineering sector has pledged its support to help deliver the project through a range of activities. 
 
For more information please contact:  
Barry Warburton 
Tel: 0117 906 4800 
bwarburton@eef-west.org.uk