The Skills Funding Agency has awarded £10.6 million to organisations in the West of England to help young people, the long term unemployed and those facing barriers to work develop new skills and find local, sustainable employment.

The funding was secured through European Social Fund (ESF) – EU funding

designed to help people into better jobs and ensure fairer opportunities, and Big Lottery Fund (BLF) programmes which aim to tackle poverty and promote social inclusion.

Local programmes, running over the next eighteen months, will support over 5,000 local people and reach over 6,000 local small businesses through a range of activities delivered by a number of local service providers.

Learn Direct will deliver a programme supporting those aged 25 and over into

sustainable employment,

education and apprenticeships, as well as the ‘Your Time’ initiative supporting 15–24 year-olds, who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

A programme of skills support, advice and guidance for people in and out of work will be delivered by N-Gaged Training.

The West of England Works programme will support at least 1,537 NEET young people and adults. It is being delivered by Weston College and a range of partners from the education, training and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.

Skills West is a programme being delivered by Business West and Western Training Provider Network (WTPN) which will help align training and employment opportunities for our economy to thrive, with employers, education and training providers working together to equip local people with the right skills at all levels.

Local people are set to benefit from this programme through a range of new

opportunities, from greater availability of face-to-face careers advice to advice on CV writing and interview techniques. Stephen Robertson, Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “This funding is really good news for the West of England as a condition of the award is that it directly reflects the approach of the West of England towards the development of skills. Whilst unemployment is relatively low in our region compared to other parts of the country – with 9,355 claiming either JSA or Universal Credit, this new pot of money will enable a clear line of sight to employment.

“Using our local knowledge, networks and partners, this money will be used to create an all-inclusive, overarching approach that tackles the barriers to work locally, bringing education and business closer together and addressing social inclusion and diversity.”