More than £7m to tackle skills and jobs needs in D2N2 LEP area

Projects to help people find work, to enable employers to plug skills gaps and for the area to retain highly-skilled graduates can now bid for more than £7million in funding, through the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership.

The financing is being provided through D2N2’s European Social Fund (ESF) allocation; itself part of the LEP’s wider €250milion in European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), which is being used to support a wide variety of business and economic growth activities over six years (up to 2020).

D2N2 is the private-sector led partnership of business, local authorities, skills and training providers, community and voluntary organisations, and others which promotes economic growth and creates job across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

Amounts from D2N2’s € 250m in ESIF funding are being released at regular intervals, with ‘calls’ for potential projects run by organisations to bid for the money.

This latest ‘call’ is to support three projects – all three funded through D2N2’s ESF allocation of funding – which are entitled as follows:

• Higher Skills Development – £4.7m to help the D2N2 LEP area retain more of its graduate talent, and create more business-based programmes to retain and develop them.
• Enterprise, Innovation and Pathways – £1.4m to raise awareness of career opportunities and access to careers support, particularly for more disadvantaged groups who are not already covered by other European Social Fund-supported programmes; such as Building Better Opportunities, INSPIRE Local, CAREERS Local, EMPLOY Local and SKILLS Local.
• Develop Sector Growth (focused support for SMEs in D2N2 LEP area growth sectors) – £1.1million for projects enhancing employers’ role in creating skills and training programmes in the D2N2 LEP area, which meet the needs of ‘skills gaps’ in companies’ workforces and help create new employment opportunities.

David Ralph, Chief Executive of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said:-

“Skills development lies at the heart of the D2N2 LEP’s Growth Strategy.

“Helping people gain skills which get them into work and then to develop knowledge which progresses their career is good for individuals, and the resulting pool of potential employees with the skills needed to plug gaps in their workforce is good for businesses.

“These three new initiatives, backed by £7.3million from D2N2’s European funding allocation, show the LEP’s commitment to skills development in its area and in getting business more involved with that.”

Organisations wishing to submit applications to any of the three funding calls above can find more information at the following website link www.gov.uk/european-structural-investment-funds?keywords=&funding_source%5B%5D=european-social-fund