Workforces upskilled by Skills Escalator

“The Skills Escalator Fund is a great opportunity for businesses to access financial support to develop and grow their employees and businesses."

Over 350 Warwickshire businesses have benefited from funding from the Skills Escalator Fund to support employee training, enabling them to upskill their workforce.

The Skills Escalator Fund offered businesses funding towards employee training. The fund provides up to £750 per employee and businesses can access funding for up to five employees per business, enabling businesses to train and upskill their staff in a wide range of areas, helping them to grow and develop their staff and businesses.

The funding was available for any business, Industries from health and beauty to manufacturing, automotive, and charitable organisations were amongst the many businesses who have received funding to upskill their employees.

The Fund, which due to its success will relaunch in June, is used to support any training that supports the business. This includes courses to develop management and leadership skills and communication skills through to workplace compliance training, such as, first aid at work and health and safety courses or sector specific training, for example, Prince 2, Digital Marketing and Leadership Courses.

MV Composites in Leamington Spa is an example of how the Skills Escalator Fund has allowed them to further train their staff and start a night shift at the factory. Directors Matt Lainsbury and Will Waterman explained: “We needed to start a night shift and as part of this we must have somebody trained in first aid and a fire warden present on every shift. We have spent a lot on the building itself, so wouldn’t have been able to afford the training ourselves, so the grant was perfect and allowed us to upskill our staff and start our new shift pattern.”

Mark Ryder, Executive Director for Communities at Warwickshire County Council, said: “The Skills Escalator Fund is a great opportunity for businesses to access financial support to develop and grow their employees and businesses. Creating a skilled workforce is key to help sustain and grow businesses and last year 809 employees accessed training as a result of the fund with a total of 725 gaining certified skills, qualifications and licences.

“The funding covers the cost of training up to £750 or is used to part fund the training which in many cases allowed the business to accelerate their investment into training and help them to drive their plans forward.”

The Skills Escalator Fund, delivered by Warwickshire County Council, is funded by UKSPF and in partnership with the county’s district and borough councils.

To find out more about the Skills Escalator Fund, contact skillshub@warwickshire.gov.uk