FIONA VLEMMIKS
MANCHESTER is undoubtedly a major player on the UK tech scene, yet 69% of the city’s tech businesses cite a lack of digital skills as their major barrier to further growth.
This could be set to change, however, with the return of Google’s Digital Garage to the city, a community hub offering a range of extensive training courses – free to businesses of all sizes as well as individuals.
As part of a drive to equip UK workers with contemporary skills they need to find a job, grow in their career or business, the Digital Garage initiative was launched in Leeds in 2015 and has already trained more than 200,000 people across the country. Locally, its first tenure was a six-month stint at Manchester Central Library in 2016, but the new city centre venue is designed to attract a wider audience with a greater range of courses on topics such as How to build your CV and An introduction to coding. One-to-one mentoring is also available.
Alina Dimofte, public policy and government relations manager for Google, explains: “When we first came to Manchester, at the library, we were mainly helping SMEs and charities, but in this new phase we have tripled the amount of training and courses that we offer in order to reach out to a broader range of people. This includes those who want to boost their careers, job seekers, students and mothers coming back to the workforce after being away.”
Mayor Andy Burnham believes this inclusive training hub will be a major boon for the city and region. He said: “We have set out ambitions to be a leading digital city in the Greater Manchester Strategy and the fact that Google has decided to reopen the Manchester site shows we are taking steps towards achieving that aim.”
Alina says the garage, which opened at the end of 2017, in space on 39-43 Kings Street, has already attracted diverse attention
“We want to be a hub for the whole community and this is a call to action,” she said.