Working with education providers and business to make sure that there is a clear route into rewarding careers for young people in Mansfield, and that we are attracting new, well paid jobs. We've already made huge progress on funding, new partnerships and opportunities, and making this a massive national priority.
We've brought together a new partnership between West Notts College and Nottingham Trent University to deliver Higher Education and degree level qualifications from the Mansfield campus, we've ensured that Mansfield and Ashfield are a priority area for school improvement bringing new funding and support, we've secured millions of capital funding to help create new local opportunities, and nationally the Skills Bill will promote new career paths through technical and vocational education.
Ahead of our devolution deal taking place, Government are already opening up doors for the East Midlands, allowing us to sit at the top table with other devolved authorities and benefit from things like the new ‘Investment Zones’.
There’ll be 12 of these across 8 parts of the country, with specific tax and regulatory rules that will drive economic growth. An East Midlands Investment Zone will potentially be worth £80 million to our region, helping us to attract potentially billions in inward investment and new opportunities, particularly around science, technology and innovation. I’m looking forward to seeing the opportunities it creates for towns like Mansfield.
Nottinghamshire is also set to be the powerhouse of the UK once again with the world-first STEP Fusion reactor being built in our county. This project will create thousands of well-paid and high-skilled jobs in clean energy from advanced manufacturing to the supply chain. With Mansfield being just down the road from this exciting development this will open up even more career opportunities for people.
The site will also have a skills academy where similar to the UK's only other training site (at Culham), apprentices will earn and learn as they work with cutting edge, advanced technologies that will shape the future of our energy production and security.
