BLACKBURN College has unveiled a new opportunity for students to work as interns with some of Lancashire’s most cutting-edge manufacturing firms.

This comes as part of an effort to boost local manufacturing in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and to open new career paths for young people.

Students will work with the businesses either on site or remotely working to an agreed project brief over several weeks.

Blackburn College senior business development manager Clare Shore said: “We know that the new skills that our interns can bring will make a real difference to Lancashire’s manufacturers in these challenging times.

“Remote working has rapidly become accepted practice during the Covid-19 pandemic, and I would encourage people to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Building up expertise in the manufacturing sector could be vital to students’ futures as well as to the UK economy’s future prosperity.

The importance of manufacturing is particularly acute given how hard other sectors such as hospitality, tourism and retail have been hit by the virus, with the latest government statistics showing an 8.4% increase in the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP.

However, this is against a backdrop of a disappointing three-month downturn and challenging times ahead.

The college’s intern initiative hopes to support manufacturing by helping small and medium sized enterprises tackle common workforce development and skills challenges, such as recruiting and retaining great staff, delivering cost-effective training, upskilling and development by assigning students whose skills fit the relevant tasks.

Ms Shore said: “Businesses can approach us with specific problems, and we can then match them to one of our University Centre students who can use their skills to support the business for a fixed period of time. This skills support is free to the business and enables our interns to gain valuable experience.”

This will be part of the EnginE initiative, part-funded by the European Social Fund and delivered in partnership with Blackburn College, Blackpool & Fylde College, the Northern Automotive Alliance and Lancaster University; and in collaboration with Boost - Lancashire’s business growth hub.