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East Midlands NTI wins school diploma contract
29/10/2008
East Midlands New Technology Initiative (NTI) has been awarded the contract to distribute £600,000 of capital grants to help schools deliver the new Diploma qualifications. The funding has been provided by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) under their Catapulting Kids Further initiative.
The Diploma is designed for 14 – 19 year olds and will be available in the first five subjects to be launched - Engineering, Construction and the Built Environment, Society Health and Development, Manufacturing and Product Design, and Land Based and Environment.
For over five years, the East Midlands NTI and its network of universities and colleges has successfully worked with local small and medium sized businesses to allocate match funded grants of up to £10,000 for new technology. Skill development is an important part of the NTI funding agreement - companies must commit to enrolling employees on NTI approved courses.
Now the NTI will be distributing grants to schools and colleges that will be teaching the new diploma, to enable them to buy high tech equipment to support the delivery of the courses. Alerting young people to the opportunities to work with advanced technology is seen as one of the inspirational elements of the programme.
Schools and colleges who will be teaching the new Diploma can apply for grants of up to £80,000 for each Diploma partnership group.
Hilary Whaley, executive director of the East Midlands NTI says they were ideally placed to handle this contract: “We have a proven track record in handling the processes of allocating grant funds from our years of working with small and medium sized businesses and educational institutions.
“It is a logical step to extend this form of support to 14 – 19 year olds who then feed into our member colleges and universities. emda has correctly identified that the region’s skills base must be raised through investment in industry specific training to give us a competitive edge for the future.
“We will be looking for applications for equipment that will enthuse pupils and have a real wow factor. This project is an exciting development for young people but it also has huge value for the local community and businesses who will be able to access and use the equipment to be purchased.”
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