£4.5m of training grants up for grabs
An expansion of the Liverpool City Region Mayor’s Be More apprenticeships portal has gone live with training grants totalling £4.5m.
It is part of a £9.4m training and careers programme to help plug skills gaps and support up to 10,000 people across Liverpool City Region (LCR) this year.
The website was launched in 2019 as the UK’s first UCAS-style apprenticeship portal as part of Mayor Steve Rotheram’s skills agenda.
It is now being expanded to create a single port of call for employers, individuals and providers.
From today, March 25, businesses across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral looking to help upskill workers and jobseekers of all ages can visit the site and apply for funding.
Up to £4.5m in grants will be distributed by the end of 2022 – supporting 1,500 businesses and helping 10,000 people to learn fresh skills or find new careers.
Of this, £2m will go towards fully funded training for employees to tackle skills shortages in 19 designated areas, divided into leadership and management, basic business skills, soft support skills, and hospitality.
Rotheram said: “Good training opportunities and independent career advice can have a life-changing impact on young people’s futures, putting them on the right path to employment and equipping them with the life skills they’ll need as they move forward in their career.
“Giving local businesses access to a pool of ambitious, enthusiastic workers and jobseekers will be vital in helping us to plug the growing skills gaps that hold our economy back. For too long, too many people in our region have been prevented from fulfilling their true potential, held back not by a lack of ambition, but a lack of opportunity. Be More is an important tool to help put that right.
“Whether they are just starting out in their career, or are on the hunt for a new challenge, I want to give every person in our city region a promise of hope. Be More will help us to do just that – by connecting thousands of people in our city region with the jobs and training they need to succeed.”
The LCR Skills and Apprenticeship Hub has been operating since January 2020, thanks to £3.96m from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and, in November of that year, a £5.45m investment by the European Social Fund (ESF).
