IN4 Group secures £10m+ contract wins delivering 1,500 tech jobs

One of the UK’s largest technology skills and innovation providers has successfully secured multiple contract wins worth in excess of £10m, including a major multimillion-pound partnership with the Department for Education (DfE).

IN4 Group, led by Blackburn-born entrepreneur Mo Isap, has landed multi-year contracts across its three flagship divisions: Skills City, CyberFirst and HOST Gametech, to deliver innovation programmes and skills into careers and apprenticeships, creating 1,500 new tech jobs in the UK.

The group’s programmes and services will impact more than 100,000 people over the next two years, from school students to adults, and will enable fair access to technology careers and digital upskilling whatever your background.

IN4’s Skills City division, one of the largest national digital Skills Bootcamps, has been awarded £6.8m from the DfE to boost jobs and prosperity in the UK.

This will enable 800 new accelerated apprenticeships in tech, enabling companies to upskill their employees and adopt new technologies to increase productivity. 

Mo Isap, CEO of IN4 Group, said: “Securing contract wins across all three of our divisions synergises the way we work and multiplies investment to a greater effect; we enable regional prosperity through the delivery of business productivity and talent development.”

IN4 has also successfully secured the CyberFirst contract in the North West, backed by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, and private sector partners - boosting cyber education and helping students to develop valued tech skills. The CyberFirst programme has already generated support from across public and private sectors, including Apex partners: IBM, Northrop Grumman, KPMG UK, QinetiQ and BT.

This follows the UK government’s investment of more than £5 billion into its new National Cyber Force in Samlesbury, Lancashire, and will help meet the need for a highly skilled digital workforce in the emerging North West Cyber Corridor.

Additionally, IN4 will be delivering a £1.4m contract, Innovate to Scale, from GMCA as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), administered by Salford City Council, through its operating contract at innovation hub HOST, the Home of Skills & Technology in MediaCity. The target is to create 150 new tech jobs in the region by March 2025.

This will be delivered through programmes including the award-winning FreelanceHER which aims to support 200 start-ups and female founders to scale up; the launch of the ground-breaking Gametech365 community, which will support 200 of the region’s brightest start-ups at the forefront of innovative gaming technology; and industrial digital accelerator GM Modern Worker, which will give 100 SMEs the tools to scale and increase productivity by upskilling their teams in AI, cloud and immersive technologies. 

Mo added: “This is an exciting time for IN4 Group and communities across the UK. This funding will give more opportunities to young people; to those wanting to train in tech; and for companies seeking to supercharge their growth.

“We are very proud to have been recognised by the DfE for all our work so far with Skills City and to continue our successful partnerships with the National Cyber Security Centre and Salford City Council.”

IN4 Group delivered £14.3m of social and economic impact in 2023 through its programmes and services and it will hit over £20m this year, demonstrating the importance of balancing commercial business success with social impact.

This year, IN4 Group will also expand its reach nationally with the growth of its Lancashire and Midlands offices, the establishment of a new hub in the South East and further expansion of its operations in the Middle East.

“This further augments IN4’s innovation blueprint by enabling economic empowerment through Skills City, enhancing educational enrichment in the CyberFirst initiative, and accelerating innovation and generating productivity by supporting businesses as part of the Innovate to Scale and Modern Workplace programmes – creating prosperity locally, regionally, and nationally across the UK and wider,” Mo said.