They were created in 2002 following The Government White Paper on enterprise, skills and innovation, ‘Opportunity for All in a World of Change.’ This identified substantial gaps in business use of ICT and other technologies, which was hindering British competitiveness in an increasingly technical world.

Regional NTIs were therefore approved across the UK to work closely with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to ensure they have the skills to apply advanced technology to improve their business capability.

They were also tasked to ensure appropriate provision of advanced technology training programmes to support those businesses and encourage them to grow.

The University of Hull is the lead partner in the New Technology Institute for the Humber, York and North Yorkshire region.

The NTI has become a recognised regional brand for ICT and advanced technology skills. It puts businesses in touch with effective solutions.

It has used capital funding, through the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to help achieve this by funding new facilities for their partners to provide new and innovative learning programmes.

The NTI is the sub-regional partner of choice in digital matters for Yorkshire Forward and the Learning & Skills Council. It also works closely with, among others, the region’s Business Link organisations.

It is the Digital Industries ‘cluster’ broker for the Humber, providing solutions and funded training to businesses operating in the fields of ICT, electronics and telecoms, design, creative, cultural and media and print and printed packaging.

It is the prime contractor in the Humber sub-region for Yorkshire Forward’s ICT Vendor Skills programme, ensuring the delivery of vendor-specific training programmes in such applications as Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Oracle and Macromedia.

It is the sole regional centre for the Microsoft IT Professional Academy and for the Microsoft Office Specialist Academy.

It is actively involved with Hull’s City Digital Group and with a growing number of regional partnerships in the digital and creative industries field.

Through its own standing and strong partnership base, the NTI’s aim is to establish itself as the primary sub-regional source of advanced ICT and technology skills and learning programmes.