Overview

The Skills Enhancement Fund is intended to respond to economic and business needs and address skills needs in the region.  It will do this by supporting employers in Yorkshire and Humber to improve their workforce’s skills and providing resources, through a flexibly administered Fund.  The Skills Enhancement Fund will provide £50m up to March 2010, supported by the European Social Fund, Yorkshire Forward and the Learning and Skills Council. 

The Skills 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.

The Skills Enhancement Fund is administered through a Partnership Board supported by a Project team.

The Partnership Board comprising a range of key stakeholders, including West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges (as lead partner), Calderdale College (as Accountable Body), the Learning and Skills Council, and Yorkshire Forward oversees the operation of The Skills Enhancement Fund, ensuring that the resources are effectively and appropriately allocated to address gaps and respond to business and skills needs within the region.

The Project Team are responsible for ensuring that The Skills Enhancement Fund is promoted widely to intermediaries supporting businesses and that the resources are properly administered.  A particular focus of their current work is enabling intermediaries (and ultimately businesses) to access resources to support development and delivery of provision that addresses skills gaps.  To this effect they are involved in the following activities across the region:

  • Responding to enquiries from training providers and intermediaries about The Skills Enhancement Fund and potential training provision that could be commissioned through the Commissioning Route or delivered on a smaller scale through Provider Route applications. 
  • Working with Skills and workforce development stakeholders such as the Sector Skills Councils, Regional Skills Partnership, and Skills and Employment Boards to identify skills provision gaps and could be addressed through Commissioning specific support through The Skills Enhancement Fund.
  • Working with Train to Gain brokers to respond to queries about delivery meeting individual company needs through the Single Business Application route.

The purpose of this website is to give you, as partner or intermediary, the information and guidance you need about The Skills Enhancement Fund, to help you to support employers.  We provide information about the different routes for accessing The Skills Enhancement Fund, including guidance on each route; a FAQ section for any answers you may need about the Fund overall; and information about how The Skills Enhancement Fund is administered and who to contact. 

As the Fund becomes more established we will provide information about projects that have been supported, including case studies show-casing good practice and specific examples of how The Skills Enhancement Fund is supporting businesses and workforce development.

We hope you find the site useful and we look forward to receiving your applications!