Tens of thousands of young people and workers across the North East will gain new skills and career opportunities as a result of investment unlocked by the region’s AI Growth Zone, helping residents secure good jobs and local businesses grow.
Announced today (Tuesday 12 May) at the second meeting of the North East AI Growth Zone Taskforce, the package shows how the AI Growth Zone is delivering real benefits for communities – turning AI investment into skills, jobs and opportunity on the ground, News Cover reports, citing the UK government's official website.
The North East mayor will back the effort with a new £750,000 investment in the government’s TechFirst programme, that will specifically ensure 30,000 primary school children benefit from early AI and digital skills. This will include ‘discovery days’ and local businesses engaging with schools to outline career paths and explain the wider benefits of AI – so children who will grow up with the technology as it develops are given a solid grounding to apply it in their lives.
This follows £1.5 million invested by the government in the North East through the programme, as part of a wider ambition to help 1 million young people from across the UK to benefit directly from the growth of AI, rather than being left behind.
For the first time, the mayor and government have also agreed a regional target – with 80,000 local students in the North East to benefit from the training until 2029.
This will be further complemented by commitments to support 1,000 local teachers to confidently teach AI while the Authority will deliver 150 local work placements, giving young people real experience and reasons to stay and work in the North East.
Speaking at the meeting today, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the AI Growth Zone is about more than technology – it is about ensuring growth reaches every part of the region. She praised the ‘stronger partnerships, new opportunities for local communities, and shared sense of purpose’ developing in the area since the Taskforce’s launch in September.
Meanwhile the North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has published the North East AI Growth Zone Prospectus for consultation, which sets out how it will build on the AI Growth Zone to support skills, adoption and innovation.
This includes proposals for creating good jobs, backing local talent, helping businesses adopt new technologies with confidence, and making sure the advantages of AI are not locked up in a few places, but spread across our towns, cities and communities.
As one part of this SAGE, Accenture and other leading businesses will come together to provide mentoring and leadership to help more women build long term careers in tech.
The AI Growth Zone has attracted major private investment, including £10 billion committed by QTS/Blackstone to build its new data centre, with the potential to support up to 5,000 high quality jobs across the AI Growth Zone in the North East.
Elsewhere the team behind Sovereign AI – a £500 million first-of-its-kind national effort to back Britain’s smartest founders and keep the future of AI built on British shores – are hosting an event in Newcastle today, inviting some of the North East’s most ambitious AI startups to share their growth plans and ambitions, helping government support those driving growth and innovation in the region.
