On Friday, Minister for Skills, Baroness Jacqui Smith, chose PHTA as the setting for the launch of a new Higher Technical Qualification (HTQ) designed to tackle the UK’s growing medtech skills shortage.
The visit marks the second Ministerial visit to PHTA in just three months, following Baron Stockwood’s tour in October – underlining growing national recognition of Birmingham’s health and life sciences district as a focal point for sector innovation.
During her time on campus, the Minister met researchers, innovators and industry partners who helped shape the qualification, which aims to address the projected 145,000-person skills gap expected across the medtech sector by 2035.
Baroness Smith began her visit with an introduction to PHTA and Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, where CEO Professor Gino Martini outlined how the district is becoming the UK’s largest integrated health and life sciences campus, expected to create 10,000 jobs and generate £400m GVA over the next decade. She also heard how Birmingham’s research strengths, diverse population and collaborative ecosystem are positioning the region as a national testbed for health innovation.
The Minister then toured our Makerspace, seeing first-hand how the facility’s prototyping and 3D-printing capabilities – as well as design support service and technical expertise – are ready to help entrepreneurs and spinouts to develop next-generation devices.
There, she also met four local success stories making an impact across diagnostics, digital health and therapeutics:
- ExGenDx, a University of Birmingham spinout showcasing its latest rapid analysis device, with applications from healthcare to food safety and security
- Healome Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company developing new treatments for eye conditions which is fresh from completing a £2m investment round – and is also a University of Birmingham spinout
- WM5G, demonstrating how a 5G-enabled capsule endoscopy – known as ‘Pill Cam’ – could support at-home bowel cancer screening
- Dr Antonio Fratini, an Aston University expert in mechanical, biomedical and design engineering whose research focuses on medical instrumentation, physiological data processing and the development of diagnostic and biosensing devices
The Makerspace tour also brought together representatives from the West Midlands Combined Authority and Pearson UK, who worked with regional businesses to design the new HTQ and ensure it meets real sector needs.
Finally, Baroness Smith visited the University’s Clinical Immunology Services, where Dr Adrian Shields and the team demonstrated their work supporting diagnosis of autoimmune and neuroimmunological disease, blood cancers, immunodeficiency, infection and allergy. The Minister saw how CIS blends clinical excellence with industry collaboration and hands-on training to prepare the next generation of clinical scientists.
Professor Gino Martini, CEO of PHTA, said: “Skills are the backbone of every effective innovation ecosystem. Birmingham’s health and life sciences district is home to world-class institutions, scientists and industry, but we only unlock its full potential if we have a workforce trained to deliver. That’s why qualifications like this matter: they create the talent pipeline our region needs, they widen access to high-value careers, and they ensure the breakthroughs being developed here can be translated into real-world impact for patients and the NHS.”
Launching the qualification, Baroness Smith said: “Medtech is transforming healthcare and these new qualifications will make sure people have the skills they need for the jobs of the future. I’m proud to see the West Midlands leading the way – working directly with employers to deliver opportunities that meet real business needs. By closing critical skills gaps, we’re not only opening careers for thousands of people – we’re helping the NHS cut waiting lists and deliver better care through innovation.”
Jean-Louis Duprey, Head of R&D at ExGenDx, said: “As a Birmingham-based life sciences company, ExGenDx has been delighted to have supported the new, locally developed, MedTech HTQ. As a startup, we have long had the need for new employees to have a wide range of skills, from basic lab skills through to an understanding of the complex regulatory path required for medical devices. We believe that these new qualifications will greatly facilitate the expansion of health and medical technology research and development work here in the West Midlands, by providing a highly trained workface with ready-to-go experience.”
Baroness Smith’s visit highlighted the role PHTA and its partners are playing in shaping a future-ready medtech workforce – and reinforced the region’s leadership of national efforts to develop the skills that will drive health innovation for decades to come.
