Bespoke training to upskill people in employment

 Project Brief

UKSPF Interventions - E37: Tailored support to help people in employment.

Context

Preston experiences challenges associated with skills gaps and low pay. The sectors that account for the largest proportion of employment in the city are often low paid such as human health and social work, and retail.

Preston has a high quantity of job vacancies available, and a large proportion of these are in professional occupations. These roles are likely to be higher paid positions, however they also have higher qualification and skills requirements.

Residents, who are already in employment, may experience challenges in progressing their careers towards these positions, given that the city has lower qualification levels than the national average.

Programme Outline

This programme aims to address the challenges outlined above by upskilling those already in employment to support them in accessing career progression and higher paid roles (such as managerial positions).

It will cover skills gaps highlighted by employers in Preston including:

• Team leading such as Level 2 Certificate in Team Leading Principles, Level 2 Diploma in Team Leading, Certificate in Principles of Team Leading, and Award in Leadership and Team Skills.
• Management such as Managing and Leading People and Performance and Change Management.
• Customer service such as Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service, and Diploma in Customer Service.
• Skills for key sectors in Preston such as Level 2 Certificate in Warehousing and Storage, Award in Awareness of End-of-Life Care, and Diploma in Care.
• International business (importing and exporting).

Please note that Preston City Council are commissioning two separate projects for green skills and digital skills, so these areas are not within the scope of this project.

We particularly encourage staff from SMEs to apply to take part in these skills' development courses as businesses of this size are highly prevalent in the city and often have more limited capacity to deliver in-house staff training.

Courses should be delivered in person or through a blended approach of online and face to face elements. (Face to face elements can include online face to face delivery through apps such as Teams and Zoom).  Whatever the mode of delivery we expect all training participants to receive individual support, assessment and feedback from a qualified tutor.

The project should offer a range of course lengths, with most leading to formal qualifications, but the project can also deliver less formal top-up skills and knowledge where appropriate. 

We expect providers to meet with the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub at the outset of the project to gain local intelligence and links to relevant stakeholders. 

The provider must be willing to collect case studies and success stories as part of the monitoring process to demonstrate the benefit of these courses to both businesses and individuals.

Financial Profile

Project Timeline

• Date of launch for commissioning - 8 November 2023
• Deadline for receipt of applications - 15 December 2023 at 17:00
• Notification of whether applications have been successful - 8 January 2024
• Issuing of grant agreements, commencement of projects - 1 April 2024
• Project end - 31 March 2025