Employers
GM Further Education Innovation Programme
Following two successful years funded through Innovate UK’s Further Education Innovation Fund, the programme will now transition to regional investment from the GMCA. This funding aims to strengthen Greater Manchester’s ambition to deliver inclusive growth and build a workforce fit for the future economy.
GMColleges is expanding innovation across the region
Innovation across industry
For 2026/27 the GM wide programme, led by Oldham College, has been awarded £1.1m which will be distributed across all 9 of our colleges, to provide innovation support in every borough of the city region.
Innovation Connector Network
Our teams have worked collaboratively across each borough to build local innovation ecosystems, supporting hundreds of businesses through tailored innovation advice, specialist facilities and skills development. The Innovation Connector Network aims to continue this work, supporting Greater Manchester businesses to access innovation expertise, facilities and partnerships through our nine Further Education colleges.
Find out more about this initiative here.
The Innovation Literacy Programme
The GM FE Innovation Programme has developed an innovative training resource for apprentices, who are employed in local businesses, to gain an additional certificate. The ‘Innovation Literacy’ training enables apprentices to become ‘Apprentice Innovation Ambassadors’ who increase productivity in the SMEs where they are based.
Learn more about the GM Colleges Innovation Literacy project here.
The Innovation Hub
In order to foster a local culture of innovation we launched the Innovation Hub, a space on the Oldham College campus where businesses can connect with each other and access the support and information needed to explore innovation opportunities.
In The Innovation Hub we host information sessions, training and creative thinking opportunities for business leaders.
This includes:
- Business networking events and partnership workshops/events
- Drop-in sessions for further topical information
- Innovation Literacy Training
- One-to-one meetings with businesses to complete a Diagnostic Tool and Innovation Canvas
If you want to book The Innovation Hub for your own event, then please get in touch with our Business Advisors.
The Imaginarium
Additionally at Oldham College we have our Imaginarium, a new virtual space with moving images, sounds and interactive visuals across every wall and the floor, creating a 360° digital world.
Employer partners can use the Imaginarium as a creative thinking space.
If you want to book out our Imaginarium, then please get in touch with our Employer Engagement team.
Accreditations
