“Forward-thinking” employers in the Thames Gateway area will benefit from a new partnership between Ixion Holdings and Anglia Ruskin University.

The not-for-profit business and skills support provider has joined with the Cambridge-based university to deliver education and skills to employers in Thames Gateway, which encompasses London, the east of England, the South East and the East Midlands.

The two organisations say the venture will “consolidate the range of business development and employer engagement opportunities on offer to forward-thinking companies and organisations”.

Priorities for the partnership will be to increase its dealings with businesses, public sector bodies and other organisations, develop course-related activities in employer engagement and new facilities on-campus for incubating businesses.

Anglia Ruskin University, which also had a campus in Chelmsford, has just won funding for a new Higher Skills @ Work programme, providing degree-level skills training in the workplace. Its Higher Skills @ Work team will operate within the new partnership.

Vice chancellor Professor Michael Thorne said: “We are delighted to welcome this new move to put employer engagement more firmly on the map. Ixion’s outstanding record for meeting the training and skills needs of businesses in the east of England and London made it the perfect partner to further develop our business skills portfolio.

“This new arrangement will provide additional business growth which will, in turn, lead to further improvements in the social, cultural and economic well-being of the region.”

Ixion Holdings CEO Graham Baker added: “It is a measure of Ixion’s hunger for growth that we are joining with a university equally as ambitious. It opens considerable future development opportunities in areas of innovation, skills and professional services for business, both in the UK and internationally.”

Ixion Holdings will keep its identity and continue to maintain its own business portfolio. Its existing service provision and clients will be unaffected by the partnership.

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