£4.5m funds for work retraining
HALTON is set to share in £4.5m of funding designed to help people of all ages retrain for work and plug skills gaps.
An expansion of the Liverpool City Region’s Be More apprenticeships portal went live last month as part of a £9.4m training and careers programme that will support up to 10,000 people across the sub-region this year.
The website was launched in 2019 as the UK’s first UCAS-style apprenticeship portal as part of Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram’s skills agenda.
It is now being expanded to create a single port of call for employers, individuals and providers.
Businesses across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral looking to help upskill workers and jobseekers of all ages can visit the site and apply for funding.
Up to £4.5m in grants will be distributed by the end of 2022 supporting 1,500 businesses and helping 10,000 people to learn fresh skills or find new careers.
Of this, £2m will go towards fully funded training for employees to tackle skills shortages in 19 designated areas, divided into leadership and management, basic business skills, soft support skills, and hospitality.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “Good training opportunities and independent career advice can have a life-changing impact on young people’s futures, putting them on the right path to employment and equipping them with the life skills they’ll need as they move forward in their career.
“Giving local businesses access to a pool of ambitious, enthusiastic workers and jobseekers will be vital in helping us to plug the growing skills gaps that hold our economy back.” He added: “For too long, too many people in our region have been prevented from fulfilling their true potential, held back not by a lack of ambition, but a lack of opportunity.
“Be More is an important tool to help put that right.” Visit be-more.info/ upskill/ online to find out more.