Scientam lands £2.8m contract

TRAINING provider Scientiam has won a £2.8m contract to help get unemployed people in Merseyside and Cheshire back to work.

Through the Skills Support for the Unemployed (SSU) programme, Scientiam will engage with hundreds of jobseekers, aged 19 or older, providing them with training and qualifications to improve their prospects.

The Birkenhead-based company fought off national competition to become one of the four providers of SSU in the North West. It will sub-contract parts of the SSU programme to Wirral Metropolitan College, Liverpool training partner NoGuru and Merseyside business start up support organisation ELECT.

Funding will be provided by the Skills Funding Agency and the European Social Fund and will allow Scientiam to deliver the SSU programme for three years. The programme will be delivered at its offices in Halton, Warrington, Crewe, Chester and Ellesmere Port.

Holly Tonge, operations manager at Scientiam, said: ““We will be focusing on the 19+, short term unemployed, providing courses, training and CV development skills to make them job ready.

“We will then engage with employers and are able to offer them £1,500 one off grants to take on one of our work ready individuals on an apprenticeship basis.”