North West tech skills and innovation provider IN4 Group has secured multiple contract wins worth in excess of £10m, including a major multimillion-pound partnership with the Department for Education (DfE).
The multi-year contracts, which are set to create 1,500 new tech jobs in the UK, are across the group’s three flagship divisions: Skills City, CyberFirst and HOST Gametech, to deliver innovation programmes and skills into careers and apprenticeships.
IN4’s Skills City division, one of the largest national digital skills bootcamps, has been awarded £6.8m from the DfE to boost jobs and prosperity in the UK.
It will help create 800 new accelerated apprenticeships in tech, supporting companies to upskill their employees and adopt new technologies to increase productivity.
Mo Isap, CEO of IN4 Group, said: “Securing contract wins across all three of our divisions synergises the way we work and multiplies investment to a greater effect; we enable regional prosperity through the delivery of business productivity and talent development.”
IN4 has also successfully secured the CyberFirst contract in the North West, backed by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), boosting cyber education and helping students to develop valued tech skills.
This follows the UK government’s investment of more than £5bn into its new National Cyber Force in Samlesbury, Lancashire, and will help meet the need for a highly skilled digital workforce in the North West Cyber Corridor.
Additionally, IN4 will be delivering a £1.4m contract, Innovate to Scale, from GMCA as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It will be administered by Salford City Council, through its operating contract at innovation hub HOST, the Home of Skills & Technology in MediaCity.
The target is to create 150 new tech jobs in the Greater Manchester region by March 2025.
This will be delivered through programmes including FreelanceHER, which aims to support 200 start-ups and female founders to scale up; the launch of the Gametech365 community, which will support 200 of the region’s brightest gaming tech start-ups; and industrial digital accelerator GM Modern Worker, which will give 100 SMEs the tools to scale and increase productivity by upskilling their teams in AI, cloud and immersive technologies.
Isap added: “This is an exciting time for IN4 Group and communities across the UK. This funding will give more opportunities to young people; to those wanting to train in tech; and for companies seeking to supercharge their growth.
“We are very proud to have been recognised by the DfE for all our work so far with Skills City and to continue our successful partnerships with the National Cyber Security Centre and Salford City Council.”
The group’s programmes and services are set to impact more than 100,000 people over the next two years, from school students to adults, and will enable fair access to technology careers and digital upskilling for people from all backgrounds.
In 2024, IN4 Group has plans to expand its reach nationally with the growth of its Lancashire and Midlands offices, the establishment of a new hub in the South East, and further expansion of its operations in the Middle East.
