Built by Hampshire, for Hampshire
We’re proud to bring together a volunteer team united by one shared purpose: creating better opportunities for people across Hampshire. Through local business networks and partnerships with organisations, charities, employers and sports clubs, we’re building a community that reaches far beyond training. Our ambition is to create something lasting, supporting businesses, strengthening communities and positively impacting thousands of lives.
About us
Skills Hampshire was created because we believe access to high-quality development shouldn't depend on the size of your employer or the size of its training budget. Hampshire has ambitious people and brilliant businesses, but skills gaps, rising costs and declining investment in training can make it increasingly difficult for organisations to develop their people. We wanted to create something practical that brings together learning, business growth and genuine local social value.
Our ambition is to train 1,000 people across Hampshire by the end of 2028 and commit £300,000 worth of fully funded learner programmes. We want to help individuals progress, give local businesses access to skills they might otherwise struggle to fund, and create a community where Hampshire employers learn, network and ultimately do more business with one another.
This matters to us because Hampshire is where we live, work, build businesses and raise our families. If we can help create a more skilled workforce, stronger local businesses and better opportunities for the people around us, the impact goes far beyond the courses themselves. It's about putting something meaningful back into the local economy and helping make Hampshire an even better place to build a career and a business.
Our leadership team
Aiden Smith
Social Value and Initiative Lead
My “why” is simple: to make a genuine impact in the community I was born in and create better opportunities for Hampshire’s workforce.
My career has taken me through learning & development, mental health technology and the corporate world, giving me first-hand experience of the challenges businesses and their people face when it comes to development and upskilling. I also work closely with Petersfield Football Club, which has strengthened my connection to local people, businesses and communities across the county.
Skills Hampshire is my opportunity to turn that experience into something positive, delivering £300,000 of fully funded learning over the next three years and helping close Hampshire’s skills gap, one learner at a time.
Spencer Coleman
Head of Community Partnerships
Having spent much of my career working with large global businesses, I’m proud to now volunteer my time closer to home, contributing to the local economy and the community my two boys will grow up in.
For me, Skills Hampshire is about more than funded training. It’s an opportunity to bring local businesses and people together, creating a network where learners develop new skills, employers build relationships, and those connections encourage more collaboration, opportunity and trade within Hampshire.
I want to help individuals take their careers to the next level while giving businesses access to the skills they need to grow without a significant financial or resource burden.
Ultimately, we want to help build a future-ready Hampshire workforce capable of delivering exceptional results today, while being prepared for whatever new technology, changing markets and ways of working bring tomorrow.