The West Yorkshire Skills Programme

Yorkshire Forward is investing £10.1m in the 3-year West Yorkshire Skills Programme, to deliver a range of skills projects, mostly aimed at developing intermediate and higher-level skills. In particular, the programme provides vocational training in subjects where none is currently available.

The resulting projects are all supported by an information, advice and guidance project, designed to help people to maximise the benefits of their learning and to ensure that the investment helps them to further their careers or engage in further related learning.

This programme will be supported by up to £23m of European funding over 3 years.

Who is running the programme?

The Learning and Skills Council is the main contract manager for this programme, but each local authority area has its own package of projects designed to meet the skills needs there. Yorkshire Forward is also working with the NHS in support of their workforce in West Yorkshire.

How was the programme developed?

Working closely with the Learning and Skills Council and other partners from the West Yorkshire Skills Group, Yorkshire Forward reviewed West Yorkshire’s key industries, mapped existing  education provision, and identified a range of skills gaps for which training needed to be provided.

Who is working on the programme?

The partners in the West Yorkshire Skills Group include Yorkshire Forward, the Learning and Skills Council for West Yorkshire, West Yorkshire’s local authorities and learning partnerships, West Yorkshire Universities, the NHS, Job Centre Plus and Connexions.

What will the programme do?

• Widen participation, encouraging those who have not previously taken up learning opportunities to enrol on entry-level accredited programmes
• Progress skills to improve the ability of people to make informed choices at each stage of learning, and to enable people to progress to a higher level of skills (especially NVQ level 4)
• Advise on skills strategy, to ensure that employers have the correct skills support to sustain their businesses
• Encourage enterprise and creative learning, by providing opportunities for young people to work in businesses where there are skills shortages
• Connect learning with regeneration, to ensure that the right skills are available within those communities which are near to planned regeneration activity. This will include brokerage services to newly attracted businesses, proactive skills programmes, and targeted pre-recruitment training.  

For a full list of projects under this programme, please contact Yorkshire Forward.