£500K skills funding helps 150 businesses in the LEP

The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has helped fund over 150 businesses.

More than £500k has now been awarded to businesses to invest in skills, enabling them to maximise their training budget and support their staff development.

The LEP’s recent business survey revealed that 74% of businesses have identified skills gaps in their workforce, showcasing the need of investing in training for current employees to garner growth.

From the investment, some organisations have trained over 40 employees with leadership and management courses proving popular to improving performance and enabling staff to move into higher level roles.

More specialist training requests have also been supported including parametric modelling, which involves using the computer to design objects by modelling their components with real-world behaviours and attributes.

Businesses are also taking the opportunity to learn Russian, Swedish and Italian, with potential to expand operations overseas and enter the export market.

One business benefitting from the support is Blueberry Marketing Solutions, a business-to-business telemarketing agency in Leeds, which has successfully utilized the skills offer from the LEP.

The business worked with advisors to construct a complete training package, which included sales and marketing, leadership and management, PRINCE2 and a Chartered Institute of Marketing qualification.

Faresh Maisuria, managing director of Blueberry Marketing Solutions, said: “What’s been really pleasing for us is that we had a specific budget in place to run training this year already – and so the skills service has simply allowed us to increase both the frequency and numbers of staff being trained.

“The skills service allows businesses to really take control of their skills gaps by upskilling existing staff of any age and any previous qualifications. It has helped to make training accessible offering employees a well-defined development road map which will have a positive impact on our continued business growth.”

Mark Ridgway OBE DL, board chair and skills lead, of Group Rhodes said: “With grants of between £500 and £50,000 available to businesses with a budget to put towards training, employers have the opportunity to work with a team of expert skills advisors, discuss their long term growth plans and skills needs, and put together a robust training plan for their staff.

“Offering a comprehensive service to businesses, the team of advisors support employers to tackle paperwork, source appropriate training provision and submit an application for funding. The LEP are dedicated to ensuring local businesses primed for growth have the skills to succeed.”

The £13.m funding is available to eligible small and medium sized businesses within Leeds City Region and available until March 2017 and businesses are encouraged to contact the LEP to find out how they could benefit.