Additional growth funding awarded to successful Black Country Skills Factory

By Black Country Skills Factory
schedule21st Jun 18

 

Media Release: 7 June 2018

Additional growth funding awarded to successful Black Country Skills Factory

 

  • The Black Country Skills Factory has been awarded additional Growth Funding to extend the programme until March 2019.
  • The Funding will enable the Skills Factory to deliver an additional 650 bite-size courses, engage 175 businesses; 40 more schools and 140 extra progressions apprenticeships.
  • Find out how your business or school can benefit at blackcountryskillsfactory.co.uk

 

The Black Country Skills Factory has been awarded additional Growth Funding to extend the Skills Factory programme through until March 2019. The additional funding of £317,500 is a 66% increase to the current funding and will enable the Skills Factory to continue to improve the labour market relevance of education and training across the Black Country.

 

The funding, from the Education & Skills Funding Agency as part of the Black Country European Social Fund (ESF) programme, will enable the Skills Factory to deliver an additional 650 bite-sized courses to Black Country based employers to meet their specific needs. 

 

This additional funding will more than double the numbers of courses planned with the original funding.  The Black Country Skills Factory will also work with 40 more schools and support the Skills Factory to continue to address skills shortages in the Black Country LEP’s 5 transformational sectors: Advanced Manufacturing; Transport Technologies; Building Technologies; Environmental Technologies and Business Services.

 

The Skills Factory will continue to design and develop education and training programmes to meet employer needs, helping individuals to gain the skills and qualifications relevant to the sectors in which they are employed.  The bite-sized courses are delivered by “best in the region” FE Colleges and Training Providers.  The delivery of these programmes will ensure employers have access to a skilled labour force. To-date the Black Country Skills Factory (in partnership with the FE colleges and training providers) have worked with over 450 businesses, delivered over 500 bite-sized courses, worked with 40 schools and supported 189 progression apprenticeships in this programme.

Stewart Towe, Black Country LEP Chair said: “This funding is great news for the Black Country Skills Factory and will enable it to continue to make education and training provision more responsive to the needs of the economy, so that employers’ skills needs are more quickly and more effectively met, and individuals receive better designed skills provision which equips them for the world of work.”

 

Keith Box (Group HSEQ Manager, IPU) said: By being able to offer the training it has resulted in staff members becoming more competent in key skills required for their role and morale has been boosted by the investment in improving their skills. 10% of the 80 strong UK workforce have been offered and completed training so far, with more to follow in the future.”    

 

For further information visit: www.blackcountryskillsfactory.co.uk

ENDS

For further information contact Helen Annetts, PR on Behalf of the Black Country Consortium on 07779026720 or email: [email protected]

Notes to Editors

About the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)

  1. The Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) aligns activity across private and public sectors to create the right environment for businesses with a remit to tackle barriers to business growth and create a globally competitive local economy.
  2. Programmes to deliver our vision are structured around three areas of activity:
  • Business: supporting skills and competitiveness
  • People: raising skills and employability, for example through our City Deal and Skills Factory;
  • Place: including the provision of more high quality employment land through our Enterprise Zone and City Deal.
  1. The LEP Board has identified seven priority areas where action will have the most impact on the Black Country and its contribution to the national economy:
  • Exploiting the potential of the Black Country as a place to live, do business and invest; focusing on our housing offer, the quality of employment land, and the distinctive role of our four strategic centres.
  • Using supply chains to build business commitment to skills and growth
  • Supporting innovation at our major science and business parks
  • Building a close relationship with our top 600 companies
  • Raising our skills levels
  • Securing inward investment
  • Developing a more entrepreneurial culture
  1. The Black Country located at the heart of the national transport network, comprises the metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. It covers 356 sq kilometres, is home to 1.18 million people, with 23 per cent ethnic minority residents and 446,500 jobs in 37,490 companies.

For more information on the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership visit www.blackcountrylep.co.uk or follow on Twitter: @blackcountrylep