New “centres of excellence” will open across the district in an effort to get more young people into the manufacturing, construction and environmental industries.
Big names from the business world such as Morrisons and Yorkshire Water have already signed up for the scheme, which will see them team up with the Bradford Council and schools to teach the skills most desired by industry bosses.
Council chiefs hope the new centres will boost their “Get Bradford Working” scheme, and plan to open one centre this year and others in September 2014.
Details go before the council’s Regeneration and Economy scrutiny committee on Thursday.
Get Bradford Working was set up to deal with employment issues in the district, and represents £9m of investment to create jobs, apprenticeships and a “transformational curriculum” for 14-19 year olds.
Of that money £7.7m is from the Council and £1.5m from Government funding and business contributions.
A major part of the scheme is the Industrial Centres for Excellence, designed to get young people into work.
It enables employers to work with schools to help design and deliver courses for teenagers.
So far, the Council has five of these centres planned. The centre for business will open in September and is a partnership with Shipley College, Titus Salt School, the University of Bradford, Yorkshire Water, Incommunities and other businesses. It will be primarily located in the Victoria Building in the Saltaire college.
A centre for environmental technologies will open in September 2014 in partnership with Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College, the University of Bradford and the Future Learning Partnership. Business partners will be Yorkshire Water, NG Bailey and Cummings.
An industrial centre of excellence for construction and property will also open next September in conjunction with Bradford College, Carlton Bolling College and Tong High School. Partner businesses are being sought, with Arnold Laver timber merchants already on board.
An industrial centre for advanced manufacturing and engineering, also launching next September, will team with Oakbank School in Keighley and the Keighley Campus of Leeds City College.
It will incorporate the town’s Fablab, which teaches young people how to use cutting edge technology like 3D printers.
Bradford-based supermarket Morrisons has been confirmed as a lead business partner for a centre for retail, logistics and wholesale, with Carlton Bolling School as the main educational partner.
The committee will also hear about the progress of other branches of Get Bradford Working, including efforts to get more small businesses to take on apprentices and get long term unemployed Bradfordians into work, or on work placement schemes.
The scrutiny committee meeting will be held in Bradford City Hall on Thursday at 5.30pm.