One of the most effective funding initiatives by the Government is to help you increase the skill levels of your staff:
A brief overview of the Workforce Development Programme (WDP)
The Government’s vision is a strong and enterprising economy with full employment based on high quality, highly-skilled jobs. Skills are crucial to success, and the WDP is part of government’s direct support to businesses and other organisations. Each organisation is allocated a Human Resource Development Advisor (HRD) who will:
- Review the company’s HRD strategy to ensure that all staff development and training will effectively support the business objectives.
- Specify the actions required to develop the HRD strategy through an agreed organisation and development plan
- Specify the training and development requirements through an agreed Organisation Learning Plan.
- Review provision options through introduction to the local provider network, and provision of on-going brokerage support, as required, to assist the implementation of the development plan and the learning plan
- Introduce organisations to the Investors in People Standard and support them towards assessment and review.
There are existing training programmes available including:
- Work based Learning
- Sector led programmes, e.g. automotive, metal skills industry, electronics, energy and optronics
- ReAct – a subsidy of £2,080 each time a worker is employed who has been made redundant from a company in wales in the last 6 months.
- Leadership and management Development Workshops
In Wales organisations normally receive discretionary funding of £1,000 to £50,000 depending on size and economic importance. The grant can be used for most training and development needs outside of the existing programmes – 70% match funding any training needs identified by the HRD Advisor. For more information contact:
Funding@GreyMatterUK.com
There are similar initiatives throughout the UK - log on to the following website to find out more:
http://www.traintogain.gov.uk/
For more information about funding for apprentices << click here >>
If you are based in Wales, download the report "Supporting Apprenticeship Training During the Economic Downturn" - << click here >>
Further details about the NVQ in Business Improvement Techniques << here >>