Publishers in Oxfordshire, home of the Oxford University Press, have received a grant of £150,000 [$256,884] from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department for Education as part of a public/private co-investment strategy for developing skills in the industry. Announced by Oxford Brookes University, which is coordinating the recipient Oxfordshire Publishing Cluster Group through its Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies, the grant will “will go towards developing locally run training courses for people in the publishing industry.”
“The publishing industry is in the midst of enormous changes; the move from print to digital has opened up a wealth of exciting opportunities and new links are being forged with a range of other media companies, such as in app development, gaming and TV and film,” said Sue Miller, of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies. “This will enable publishers to upskill their staff in new technologies, workflow practices and publishers’ creative, digital and entrepreneurial skills. This will, in turn, ensure that Oxfordshire stays at the cutting edge of the publishing industry and will help expand the sector in our region.”
As part of the initiative, publishers “have agreed they will work more closely with local schools to support both the City and County Councils’ commitment to improving literacy in schools and encouraging local youngsters to consider a career in publishing.”
I wonder if that will include instruction on the use of the Oxford comma.