Employment programme granted £1m extension

The Lancashire Employment and Skills Executive Partnership, which has supported 2,200 unemployed or inactive adults to date, has been granted a further £1m funding to continue its support to March 2019.

The programme secured £6.7m in November 2016 from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and European Social Fund (ESF) to deliver Access to Employment (AtoE) across Lancashire. Preston’s College is the lead accountable body for AtoE on behalf of the Partnership.

As well as supporting individuals into employment, AtoE provides businesses with access to ready and willing candidates to help support objectives and achieve growth. Businesses can work with LESEP to design bespoke, pre-employment training before they recruit to ensure it is tailored to their needs and that individuals are equipped with the relevant skills.

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Rosie Fearn, operations director at LESEP, said: “The fact that funding for the programmes has been extended is testament to the success which has been achieved to date; creating a pipeline of talent and skills for the benefit of local businesses to enable them to expand and achieve growth, while generating opportunities for people to obtain employment. “We’d encourage businesses looking to grow their workforce or people who are looking for work to take advantage of Access to Employment before the funding comes to an end in March 2019.”