Serco’s Employment, Skills & Enterprise business has been selected by the Skills Funding Agency to deliver a new Skills Support for the Workforce (SSW) contract, providing training, to help upskill the workforce of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Worcestershire.
Under the 18-month programme, Serco will work in partnership with Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to provide IT, leadership and management training, as well as run vocationally-relevant courses targeting specific areas of improvement. The overall focus is to help support growth in the following priority areas, helping to boost the wider, regional economy in Worcestershire:
- Advanced manufacturing
- Cyber security & defence
- Agri-tech / agri-food
- Visitor & destination economy
- Businesses requiring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) qualifications.
As part of the SSW programme, co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Skills Funding Agency, Serco will work with a number of expert training providers to offer recognised accredited qualifications and bespoke training courses aiming to enhance employees’ skills, increase the competitiveness of local businesses and boost the local economy.
Through SSW, eligible businesses can benefit from fully funded training, tailored to their specific needs. Fully-flexible training takes place at employees’ workplace and businesses can select full qualifications or mix and match individual units that are directly relevant to their work. Previous SSW programme participants have benefited from increased employee confidence, motivation and productivity and improved employee loyalty and retention.
Gareth Moss, Serco’s Director for Employment, Skills and Enterprise, said: “I am delighted that Serco has been selected by the Skills Funding Agency to manage the new SSW programme in Worcestershire.
“We have previously delivered the SSW programme in a number of areas and are grateful that the SFA has trusted us once again to deliver this important service. So far we have supported over 1,500 businesses with training for their workforce and over 6,000 employees have benefited from our support, and we’re looking forward to working in partnership with the Worcestershire LEP and our providers to enable many more to take advantage of this brilliant opportunity.”
Gary Woodman, Chief Executive of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “It is fantastic news that Serco will continue to raise the skills of the local area with its Skills Support Workforce programme. This is a great example of how the European Social Fund has helped to develop Worcestershire’s local SMEs with fully-funded training and tailored business advice.”
Businesses can contact Serco on skillssupport@serco.com for more details and to find out if they are eligible for funded training through Skills Support for the Workforce.
