Enhancement Fund
The Enhancement Fund is intended to respond to economic and business needs and address skills needs in the Yorkshire and Humber region. It does this by supporting employers in Yorkshire and Humber to improve their workforce’s skills and providing resources, through a flexibly administered Fund. The Enhancement Fund will provide £50m up to March 2010, supported by the European Social Fund, Yorkshire Forward and the Learning and Skills Council.
The Enhancement Fund will support training activity that enhances the Train to Gain offer, and is not being met through existing resources; leading to business growth and increased competitiveness. It allows all types and sizes of companies to access resources and will also support public and voluntary sector employers.
Up to £40m is provided from the European Social Fund, co-financed by the Learning and Skills Council, with a focus on small and medium-sized companies. Half of this will support delivery to South Yorkshire employers.
A further £10m is provided by Yorkshire Forward, enabling additional flexibility and provision of higher level skills to all employers and support to larger companies in the Region.
There are multiple routes to access this funding but the simplest one is a single business application. This is an application that covers the needs of a single organisation and can access upto £20,000 of funding on a 60/40% matched basis.
An organisation can apply multiple times to the fund – but each tranche of funding and the associated work must be completed before a further application can be made.
An example
A client of ours wanted to develop a long term strategic marketing plan – but had no experience of how to go about this. Rather than providing the consultants to develop this plan for them we developed a bespoke development programme that will give the business owners the skills they need to create and manage their own marketing plan.
We helped out client to apply for £19,600 which was agreed in less than 3 weeks.
This is spread over 10 months of development activity which includes a mixture of coaching, technology skills, leadership skills and is helping the business to create formal job roles and share the responsibility for making the new marketing strategy work.
The Enhancement fund is paying 60% of the costs of the programme or £11,760.
Our client is paying the remaining 40% or £7,840 monthly over the period of the programme.
The whole process was simple and straight forward and we completed all of the paperwork for them.
Summary
Criteria
From 1 to 5000 Staff
Based in Yorkshire & Humber Area
What for?
Any training or skills development activity not currently supported by other initiatives.
How Much
Up to £33,333 of match funding per application. Multiple applications are allowed.
Private organisations must meet 40% of the overall cost.
Public bodies (local authorities etc) must meet 50% of the overall cost.
Process
- We perform a Training Needs Analysis with you (1-2 hours phone call or meeting)
- We do the paperwork
- We arrange for you to sign the paperwork and confirm the details.
- We submit the paperwork and chase up any questions for you.
- Once it is approved (less than 3 weeks).
- Your programme starts.
- You pay for development/training as it is delivered.
- We help you apply for the refunds.
What can we use it for?
Anything that is not covered by other Train to Gain funding in the region. Our clients have successfully applied for a variety of development from year long Leadership development programmes to acquiring the skills to develop their own long term marketing strategies.
This fund is fantastic for organisations that want to tackle complex challenges with their staff or who are looking to sharpen their people to improve their sales and service. Give us a call and let us help you pull together a programme that meets your precise needs.