IN4 Group is set to bring a pioneering technology educational enrichment and scholarships programme to secondary schools in partnership with Blackburn with Darwen Council.
IN4, headquartered in MediaCity, will establish a new programme that will nurture over 600 pupils and mentor 50 scholarship students each year across the borough to secure the best digital technology careers.
MEGA (motivated, educated generation with ambition) Hub builds on the huge success of IN4’s major North West and West Midlands CyberFirst contracts with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ.
With GCHQ’s Northern headquarters based in Manchester city centre, and the ongoing development of the North West Cyber Corridor, there is an increasing demand for skilled tech jobs to be filled in the region.
IN4, which operates innovation hub HOST, the Home of Skills & Technology in MediaCity, has ambitions to establish MEGA Hubs across the North West and Greater Manchester, including Salford and Oldham.
Blackburn with Darwen Council, IN4 Group and its partners IBM, Northrop Grumman, KPMG UK, QinetiQ, CGI, Roke, and BT are committing more than £300k per annum into the MEGA Hub, with a plan to increase the investment in the coming years.
The pilot was announced by the Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, Councillor Phil Riley, and the CEO of IN4 Group and Blackburn entrepreneur Mo Isap at a CyberFirst celebration event for schools and colleges across the North West.
Isap said: “It’s a moment of great pride that I have the ability to further invest in the North West, specifically to support our talented young people who have the potential to be great but due to disadvantage, deprivation and discrimination end up being average at best.
“We grew up not knowing we had started life in the second-class carriage. My aim is to ensure all our young people belong in the first-class carriage of the technology express, which will take them to incredible destinations and, in doing so, make our borough great again in the fourth Industrial Revolution as it was in the first one.
“This will lay the foundations for the MEGA Hub model as we aim to nurture and unlock talent in our local authority regions through collaboration and co-investment across public and private sector partnerships.”
The CyberFirst and MEGA Hub programmes link closely to the government’s investment of more than £5bn in its new National Cyber Force in neighbouring Samlesbury and will help meet the need for a highly skilled digital workforce in the emerging North West Cyber Corridor.
The MEGA hub incorporates a KS3 and KS4 technology enrichment programme that operates as an extension to the school timetable. The programme combines CyberFirst, Esports Academy, Play AI, and IBM Skills Build with hackathons, competitions, entrepreneurship, and tech careers education.
Fifty scholarships will be awarded to 16-year-olds starting sixth form or a Level 4 qualification, with a £1,000 student bursary. The scholarships will provide mentoring, industry placements, and professional technology certifications in generative AI, cloud, and cyber with AWS, Microsoft, and Google. Each scholarship student will gain access and dedicated support to secure the best technology degree apprenticeships or university places.
Three schools, including Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School and Sixth Form College (TIGHS), Blackburn Central, Pleckgate, and Blackburn College, are already CyberFirst accredited. The MEGA Hub will now work to ensure the same for the remaining secondary schools in the borough.
Local businesses interested in collaborating with the MEGA Hub can find out more at IN4’s website.
