£13mil for employment

The money is available via the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership to help the long term-unemployed, young workers and those looking to progress in their career, as well as boost the economy.

David Ralph, chief executive of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The aspiration is to support D2N2’s employment and growth needs, and have in place an easily accessible system, from which employers and individuals can all benefit.”

There will be four programmes, which project organisers can bid into to tackle a range of issues relating to business growth by providing training and skills, helping the long term unemployed to find work, and aiding young people termed NEETs (not in education, employment or training).

The programmes are as follows -

· EMPLOY Local will focus on helping those unemployed for a long period of time, by helping them access additional support and gain basic work skills.

· CAREERS Local looks at helping young people aged 15 to 25 – particularly those termed as NEETs, or who are at risk of becoming NEET – to participate in the jobs market and in further learning.

· The Youth Engagement Initiative is about increasing employed people’s skills levels to help them progress their careers, and increase the number of people with technical and job specific skills. It will also address the basic skills needs of employed people.

· SKILLS Local will look to support business growth across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire by providing training and skills which will benefit the existing workforce.

Organisations have to be on the national Skills Funding Agency’s ‘Register of Training Organisations’ to apply. They can view further details about these funding opportunities and complete a funding application online, on the SFA e-Tendering portal at https://skillsfundingagency.bravosolution.co.uk

The deadline for applications to SKILLS Local is August 1, CAREERS is August 4, EMPLOY is August 8 and for Youth Engagement it is August 9.