Member Article

Midlands employment and training charity welcomes skills funding boost

Midlands-based supported employment and training charity Landau, which assists thousands of individuals each year to secure training and sustainable jobs, has welcomed the Chancellor’s £3bn funding boost for skills and training.

Speaking after the Autumn budget announcement on Wednesday, Chief Executive of the charity Sonia Roberts, said: “We are particularly pleased to see an additional £550m being invested in adult skills to support those without any qualifications beyond GCSE level.

“We’re currently working with a growing number of people who are out of work and need additional training to secure employment, so we’re hoping this funding will support the upskilling of these individuals and contribute towards lowering unemployment levels across the region but as always, we are yet to see the small print of the proposed funding plans and exactly what it will mean.”

Mrs Roberts also cautiously welcomed the Government’s plans to increase wages for the lowest paid employees and apprentices.

“We very much welcome the Government’s decision to increase national wages. We work with a lot of people who are in poverty and would say these rises are long overdue.

“However, we won’t yet know whether the measures will be enough to cover the rising costs that many families are set to face with increasing household bills and daily expenditure or whether more needs to be done by the Government.”

Landau, which has its headquarters in Wellington, Shropshire, is a registered charity which has been delivering supported employment services to those with learning and physical disabilities, individuals with mental ill health, long term unemployed, and young people since 1995.

Helping thousands of people each year across Stoke, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Herefordshire, Landau is committed to empowering individuals through formal/informal learning for the benefit of the clients and the wider community.

It became a Centre of Excellence in 2020 for its IPS service for those with enduring mental health problems and was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for promoting opportunity through social mobility earlier this year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lorna Mccann .