West Midlands mayor Andy Street at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre boot camp launch.
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00:00 Andy, just kind of straight off about what does this mean for the industry and for the region?
00:06 So, there's two ways you can take that question.
00:09 The big picture of course for the region is £26.5 million.
00:12 Lots of vacancies on boot camps across all sorts of sectors.
00:16 We've talked about theatre here, but whether it be digital, whether it be engineering, manufacturing, logistics, creative, professional services, boot camps across all of them.
00:25 There's lots of opportunities.
00:27 And of course the really interesting thing to me is that we're growing this.
00:31 We started off small a few years ago.
00:33 We've now got the biggest programme in the country.
00:35 The government will move double the amount of money because everybody's pleased with the outcomes.
00:39 But what it means here for this industry is that new people are going to come in, get the technical training that theatres like this rely on.
00:47 And you've heard people say upstairs that the industry really needs technicians.
00:52 So this guarantees the supply of technicians in the future as well as gives youngsters a brilliant new opportunity.
00:58 Well yeah, you've just answered my question really.
01:00 Who will this funding really benefit?
01:02 So it benefits lots of people.
01:05 What do I mean by that?
01:06 So first of all it benefits young people who are thinking about which career they want to go on.
01:10 And you met a number of them outside and you saw me quizzing them all about different things.
01:13 But interestingly it also benefits people who want a change of career.
01:17 So if you're in a job where you think, "It's fine, but my prospects aren't that good."
01:21 You can get a technical education here relatively quickly and hopefully then move to an area where you have better prospects.
01:28 And remember, all of our training in the West Midlands is free to anybody earning up to £30,000.
01:35 Unique in the country that is.
01:37 Thank you so much Andy.
01:39 Is that alright?