Employers offered £150m for 'DIY' skills schemes

London – The UK government has put up £150 million to help businesses to create their own training schemes, under the second round of the Employer Ownership Pilot (EOP).

Companies including Nissan, Whitbread and GE Aviation have already access to £70 million under the EOP scheme, said skills minister Matthew Hancock. Projects supported range from extending skills training to local suppliers, to doubling the number of female apprentices.

“I would encourage businesses - large and small - to be ambitious and innovative in their vision for how the fund can help them grow, from creating new apprenticeship programmes to setting up specialist training academies,” said Hancock.

Welcoming the latest initiative, David Way, chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service said: “This will help to achieve our ambition to see accelerated growth and higher quality standards for apprenticeships.

“The Employer Ownership Pilot will encourage a fresh and creative approach to stimulating employers to offer more opportunities to young people. This initiative will enable even more employers to collaborate and lead to the further expansion of apprenticeships.”

For manufacturers’ organisation the EEF, Tim Thomas, head of employment and skills policy, said the announcement showed that “we are finally moving towards a demand-led approach to skills, where the employer is in the driving seat.

“We know that firms are looking to increase their investment in skills and we need to make it easier for them to do this. The focus of round 2 should be on encouraging more creative and ambitious bids involving businesses of all sizes, with firms collaborating with their suppliers and customers on joint bids.”

*The round two prospectus is now available online at www.ukces.org.uk/employerownership and the deadline for bids is 28 Feb 2013.