Businesses in the West of England continue to benefit from £2.29m skills training fund

Small and medium sized businesses in the West of England, are urged to take advantage of a £2.29m skills training fund to upskill their workforce. Businesses can access the funded training through the Skills Support for the Workforce (SSW) programme to upskill; current employees, employees on furlough returning to work, or new recruits that need to be brought up to speed. 

SSW is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which means businesses can access a wide range of training at no cost.  There are 100s of courses on offer ranging from short 1-day courses to longer programmes including:

•    Team Leadership and Management
•    IT & Digital Skills
•    Marketing
•    Customer Service
•    Health & Social Care
•    Hospitality & Catering
•    Mental Health Awareness
•    Retail Operations
•    Warehousing and Logistics
•    Construction
•    And many more

Matthew Jones, Managing Director at Pipeline Products, took advantage of the SSW programme and explained why he saw the programme to be vital to the development of his business.  He said: “Upskilling the workforce would allow certain staff members to take on some extra responsibility within their roles and achieve some of the goals they have been working towards. We have specific growth goals over the next 3 years which rely heavily on efficiency – having new and improved skills within the workforce will ensure our goals are met.”

Support is also available to business owners facing the prospect of making hard decisions about redundancy, and to individuals who have been made redundant in the last three months through the Skills Support for Redundancy (SSR) programme.

Both the Skills Support for the Workforce and Skills Support for Redundancy Programmes in the West of England are delivered by Serco in partnership with local training organisations who offer both accredited qualifications and bespoke training courses.

If you would like to find out more about the Skills Support for the Workforce and Skills Support for Redundancy programmes, visit the website: www.serco-ssw.com or contact Rachel Crossey, Performance Manager for the West of England region: skillssupport@serco.com