LEP to drive growth through skills training
14th November 2013
Over £2 million from the European Social Fund (ESF) is being invested in skills training for the area’s workforce to aid business growth.
The Heart of the South West (HotSW) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has identified priority workforce skills to help boost the economy of the area, including marine, biosciences, advanced engineering, business and professional, environmental services and construction.
Following a procurement process by the Skills Funding Agency on behalf of the LEP, Serco Vocational Training will be working with small and medium enterprise (SME) businesses across the region to identify and address training and development needs through the ESF funded ‘Skills for Growth’ Project.
Chris Garcia, Chief Executive of Heart of the South West LEP said: “This project is a fantastic opportunity to help meet the current and future workforce needs of the area and the UK as a whole. We have identified key sectors that will benefit from the skills training – this initiative will ensure the workforce have the right skills in place for businesses to grow and prosper.”
Lesley Watson, Head of Apprenticeships, Serco commented: “We are delighted to be working with Heart of the South West LEP on this project. We will be closely working with the LEP and local businesses to meet workforce development needs across the region and will be delivering a variety of different training courses using a range of subcontractors.
“By working in partnership with a range of diverse organisations, we strongly believe that we will be able to meet the priority needs of the Heart of the South West LEP by helping to develop the workforce skills that businesses need to help them grow.”
SME employers interested in finding out more about the Skills for Growth project should call Serco Vocational Training on 01823 338683, email esfssw@serco.com or visit www.skillsforgrowth.co.uk.
For more information about the work of the Heart of the South West LEP visit www.heartofswlep.co.uk
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
For more information, contact Emma Parker or Liz Waugh at Coast Communications on 07944 360631 / 07966 388921 / main office 01752 847135.
Heart of the South West
The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has been formed under the leadership of the private sector supported by the local authorities from Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay and the area’s District Councils. It is one of 39 partnerships created since the Government’s Local Growth White Paper published in October 2010. More information about the work of the LEP is available from the website www.heartofswlep.co.uk.
About Serco Vocational Training
Serco operate in a highly diverse marketplace supporting both public and private sector clients in a wide range of fields.
As part of Serco’s commitment to helping young people develop the skills and capabilities needed to enter work and of our support of the UK Government’s drive to reduce youth unemployment across the country; Serco CEO Chris Hyman announced the creation of 1,000 new work placement opportunities for young people and 500 apprenticeships.
We have been delivering Apprenticeships within Serco since 2001; the training team is headed up by Lesley Watson the Head of Apprenticeships, and Chair of the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network for the South West of England. The team have an excellent working knowledge of both the National Apprentice Service and Skills Funding Agency.
The Serco Apprenticeship programme has received significant investment and support over recent years; this has allowed the programme to grow from delivering 5 apprentices a year at one of our operational contracts to having 1234 employees working towards achieving an apprenticeship framework at over 80 sites across our UK business – 944 of these at level 3 skills.
Serco have recently been awarded four contracts to deliver the SFA ESF Skills Support for the Work Force across the South West.