GMCVO has received funding from the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund (UKCRF) to deliver Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent between January 2022 and 30th June 2022.
A total of eight organisations have received a share of £4,240,996 to work to help support people in the city-region build their skills and increase employment opportunities.
Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent is a youth employment programme working with young people aged 16 – 24. The programme builds on learning from Greater Manchester Talent Match (2013 - 2018) and the first iteration of Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent (March 2019 – March 2021) to support young people to progress towards employment and improve their self-esteem and wellbeing.
Our Talent Coaches, based in community-based employment support organisations across Greater Manchester, will provide strength-based and holistic support to young people. We place emphasis on supporting ‘hidden’ young people; hidden young people are those not in employment, education or training and not claiming benefits.
Programme partners Greater Manchester Youth Network will support young people to play an active role in shaping the design and delivery of the programme by hosting the Youth Panel; young people who have experienced their own barriers to employment.
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce will work with employers to help them to open themselves up to young people furthest from the workplace and remove barriers to young people when recruiting.
Greater Manchester’s Hidden Talent programme Manager, Gavin Owen, said: “I am pleased that GMCVO are once again able to coordinate pre-employment support for young people in Greater Manchester after the positive outcomes of Talent Match and Hidden Talent that supported over 2000 young people. The local organisations that we partner have strong links with their communities and the young people that they support. Talent Coaches work holistically 1:1 and therefore build up a strong bond enabling them to gain the trust of the young people. We look forward to assisting young people into the education, training or employment opportunities that best suit them and their potential.”
Councillor Bev Craig, GMCA lead for Education, Skills, Work, Apprenticeships and Digital, said: “These eight projects have been selected due to their work in assisting communities most in need in the city-region, as well as their efforts to support people with finding jobs and building new skills.
“The UKCRF has been created to support innovation and new ideas, and these organisations will be working in a variety of different ways to help people in need find employment opportunities – ranging from support for young people to find employment in Greater Manchester’s growing green economy to connecting our communities to new digital jobs.”
The UKCRF is a UK government programme which invests in skills, community and place, local business and also supports people into employment. The UK Government designated 100 areas across the UK as ‘priority places’ to receive the fund, which included four boroughs in the city-region – Bolton, Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale.
For more information about the UKCRF in Greater Manchester please visit the GMCA website. More information about the UKCRF can also be found on the Government website.
