Leadership & Management Training Grants

Have YOU claimed your £1,000 from the Government?

There is a really good scheme operating across England which is designed to help organisations with 5-250 employees improve their management and leadership skills.

It’s flexible, fast and not too bureacratic. In conjunction with your specialist skills advisor YOU choose the training which is right for you. This might well include accredited project management and service management courses such as PRINCE2, MSP, MoR and ITIL. Equally it might be tailored training, coaching or mentoring.

You can get £500 free training with no strings - and £500 on a matched funding basis.

The only disappointment is that there’s only one allocation per organisation.

It was launched as part of the Train to Gain initiative - though this is now being integrated with business support services co-ordinated under the Business Link umbrella.

>> FIND OUT HOW TO APPLY FOR YOUR £1,000

Blogalot May 2009

More Training Funding - but why is it so confused?

A little publicised announcement by Skills Secretary John Denham recently advised that “small businesses will be the focus of £350m of Government funds to help them train their staff”. This marks one of a series of steps by government to extend and simplify business training support.

The bad news is that there is a lack of consistency so available help can vary according to location, size of business, type of training and industry sector.  Whilst there is a huge Learning and Skills Council bureacracy behind government funded training it is difficult for individual businesses to see exactly what training will be supported.  With rules changing all the time and variability across the country many companies decide it is just not worth the effort.

If you do want to explore available options the first port of call should be Train To Gain (or the corresponding services in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). You will be assigned a skills broker who is funded by the Learning and Skills Council.  These advisors are generally very pragmatic and will do all they can to assist you in identifying needs and selecting appropriate training providers. Use the links below to reach your relevant contact.

Traditionally, government support has focused on support for training of young people seeking their first Level 2 (equivalent to 5 GCSEs) or Level 3 (equivalent to 2 A-Levels) qualifications.  There is full funding for all businesses in these categories for 19–25 year olds – and indeed some opportunities for Level 4 qualifications. Since the Denham announcement in October 2008 the guidelines are less prescriptive, especially for private sector businesses with up to 250 employees.

There is significant support for developing Leadership and Management within SMEs.  The current scheme provides funding of up to £1,000 for this purpose; the first £500 is in the form of a grant and the remainder is on a matched funding basis. This means that valuable training and certifications such as ISEB Business Analysis Diploma, Change Management, or ITIL can be funded for a minimal outlay.

From January 2009 private sector SMEs can also get support for focused training programmes in subjects such as business improvement, IT support and risk management.

Other schemes support those affected by recession.  As well as support to individuals made redundant,  the ReAct programme in Wales provides assistance with training of new starters when recruits have been subject to redundancy. There is considerable flexibility as to the type of training which can be supported.

For companies with more than 5,000 employees advice is provided by the National Employer Service. Companies which have been helped with large scale, sustainable training programmes include Sainsbury’s, Vodafone, Tesco, Royal Mail, Rentokil Initial, Ford, McDonald’s and BAe Systems.

Blogalot