In this issue of In Touch you can read about further communities in our region that have signed a Community Partnership and there’s news of further funding for some of our BDUK partnerships who are benefiting from a ‘gainshare’ award under the terms of the BT contract.

BT has also announced the creation of new apprenticeship and graduate jobs in the North West in its drive to equip young people with the skills and training needed to meet the challenges of a changing jobs market. And BT Sport have joined forces with some of the regions’ biggest sports clubs to create apprenticeships to help young people in the region.

And as featured in the National News our Barefoot Computing programme has now reached one million children, including more than 118,000 in the North West, it’s a great project that helps primary school teachers get confident with teaching computer science.

We’re also partnering with NEC and the University of Salford to test how well future 4G and 5G technology withstands UK weather – further details of the tests will be featured in a future edition of In Touch. And finally we profile North West regional board member Mike Higginson.

Mike Blackburn, Chair of the North West Regional Board