A new skills hub for the Lower Thames Crossing opens in Gravesend

KentOnline / KMTV

A brand new skills hub has been set up by those behind the new road project, the Lower Thames Crossing. The hub's aim is to tackle industry skills shortages as well as unemployment.   Meghan Shaw Reports

Transcript

00:005,000 vacancies and the long pathway to the UK's most ambitious road project in over 35 years.

00:07The solution? A skills hub in Gravesend designed to train up the next generation

00:13of construction workers, steel fixers and engineers to get the project off the ground.

00:19Behind me is the Gravesend Skills Hub for the Lower Temps Crossing,

00:23seeing new students every month. These will offer a range of employability

00:27and functional skills courses for free to upskill or reskill those at the start of their career

00:34or looking to change career. The opportunities to upskill here are endless

00:39and we're working in collaboration with the local supply chain so that we're sourcing real gaps in

00:43the market so these people who come in and work with those local people can gain free aggressive

00:48training, guaranteed job interviews and then go on to deliver the construction reviews here in Kent.

00:53But in Gravesend, a constituency where in 2021 the ONS found that just over a quarter of school

01:00leavers held a level 4 or above qualification, this is just as much about levelling up an entire

01:06generation than it is about boosting productivity. Really important if this is going to work that

01:12local people feel and it will take time that this is a bonus, it's a plus not a minus. So getting the

01:20jobs that are necessary from the locality, getting people to feel that this is about them.

01:27Embedded into the development's plans is a pledge to ensure that 45% of the workforce lives within 20

01:34miles of the project, prioritising local people and community. But for Dr Lauren Sullivan,

01:41Gravesham's MP, holding this to account is a major priority.

01:45It's about opportunities and fundamentally this is a huge infrastructure project with lots of money

01:50coming to Gravesham and the surrounding areas. We need to make sure that local people have those

01:56opportunities. We know that a train ticket to London is for a youngster £30. That is a huge amount of

02:05money to participate in those opportunities in London. They are out of the loop of that so I need to make

02:12sure that those opportunities that are here can be felt by all. But with the speeches made, the targets

02:18set and the programmes unveiled, there's only the hardest part yet to do. Deliver. And ensure those

02:26in and around Gravesend can feel the benefits of a once controversial project. Megan Shaw for Kane TV in Gravesham.

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