£10m for business training

Aug 13 2008 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

SMALL firms in Merseyside are to benefit from a training pot worth £10.2m.

The Learning and Skills Council Greater Merseyside (LSCGM) has secured the money to continue its most successful workforce development programme to date. And a further £2m is in the pipeline.

The additional money, from the European Social Fund, means its award-winning SkillWorks programme will continue to offer small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) demand-led training until 2010.

Training providers – St Helens Chamber, St Helens College, Sysco Business Skills Academy and The Laird Foundation – have been appointed and began working on the project from August so ensure a smooth transition when the current phase ended at the end of July.

Further training providers will be announced later in the year.

SkillWorks has already helped more than 8,000 SMEs in Merseyside obtain training to develop the skills of their workforce by offering bespoke training to fit in with their business needs.

The new phase of SkillWorks will target businesses who have not yet engaged with training while continuing to work with those who already invest in training

Companies that have previously accessed SkillWorks are now eligible for 60% of funding towards bespoke training up to a limit of £60,000.

Helen France, director of area, Learning and Skills Council Greater Merseyside, said: “While we’ve helped an enormous number of businesses so far, we need to build on this and help those hard to reach companies who’ve no previous record of training and are unable to identify their needs.

“The latest phase of SkillWorks aims to stimulate and address demand among Greater Merseyside SMEs and, alongside apprenticeships, Train to Gain and the introduction of the Skills Pledge, help to encourage businesses to develop a learning culture.”

The new funding became available on August 1.

Further information about the SkillWorks programme can be found by visiting www. theskillworks.co.uk

tonymcdonough