Council call out for organisations to deliver bespoke employability and skills support

Preston City Council is looking for quality partners to deliver nine skills development programmes to support local people, as part of its UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) programme. Interested organisations are invited to apply now at Preston City Council - UKSPF Skills Commissioning Fund for Preston section.

Preston City Council received an allocation of £5.2m UKSPF funding from the Government to invest in a range of projects that will help benefit both local people and the city's businesses. In October, Councillors agreed to allocate more than £1M of the funding pot specifically to target employability and skills.

This skills commissioning round will deliver general skills and training programmes to meet the needs of Preston residents and employers, and to provide intensive support to those furthest from the labour market. It will also help people who are employed to acquire advanced skills to help them progress into better paid and more sustainable jobs.

Leader of Preston City Council, Councillor Matthew Brown said:

"A key part of our local economic agenda is supporting local people to gain high quality skills and training. It is something I am passionate about - whether that be people getting their first job, returning to the world of work or gaining new high-tech skills to enable them to seize some of the exciting opportunities coming down the line.

This programme aligns closely with our Community Wealth Building principles encouraging recruitment from parts of Preston with lower incomes into secure, better paid employment within our anchor institutions.  These new programmes go a long way to help us deliver further economic inclusion and we look forward to working with local partner organisations to provide this tailored support across all communities."

The commissioning round has now gone live and will close at 5pm on Friday 15 December 2023. Programmes are expected to start in April 2024 and run to end March 2025.

For more details and how to apply visit Preston City Council - UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

More information

The nine UKSPF programmes in this commissioning round are:

• E33 Support for economically inactive residents to access employment and training - specifically support for young people.
• E33 Support for economically inactive residents to access employment and training - specifically for adults.
• E34 Courses including basic, life and career skills - Community mental wellbeing project
• E34 Courses including basic, life and career skills - Community digital literacy project
• E34 Courses including basic, life and career skills - Community ESOL project
• E37 Tailored support to help people in employment - Digital skills for people in employment
• E37 Tailored support to help people in employment - Bespoke training to upskill people in employment
• E38 Local areas to fund local skills needs - Local skills fund
• E39 Green skills courses to support transition to net-zero- Green skills fund

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government's Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information visit GOV.UK - UKSPF

Preston City Council actively applies and prioritises the principles of Community Wealth Building wherever applicable and appropriate. Community Wealth Building is an approach which aims to ensure the economic system builds wealth and prosperity for everyone.