24 colleges in the South West are to get extra funding from government to train people unemployed for more than six months to help them back into work, Skills Secretary John Denham announced today.
The South West colleges have been given a share of £83 million to offer high quality training places to the long-term unemployed, with 75,000 being provided nationally. In the current economic climate this group find it harder as more people compete for jobs. This support is in addition to the existing support on offer in colleges to people who are unemployed.
Courses will be matched to the local job market, from retail to hospitality, and from literacy and numeracy to vocational training at the equivalent of A-level standard. People accessing the courses will also be able to continue their training once they have got a job ensuring that they get a range of skills which will help them get sustainable employment.
Colleges ready to help people across the South West are:
- Truro & Penwith College
- South Devon College
- Cornwall College
- Weymouth College
- Stroud College
- Somerset College of Art & Technology
- Bridgwater College
- City College Plymouth
- Richard Huish College
- South Devon College
- Wiltshire College
- Norton Radstock
- Gloucester College
- City of Bristol College
- Cirencester College
- Exeter College
- City of Bath College
- Swindon College
- Filton College
- Bournemouth & Poole College
- Kingston Maurward College
- Weston College
- North Devon College
- Royal Forest of Dean College
The investment combined with £100 million announced in October 2008 to those help those facing redundancy means that new support will help over 100,000 people nationally to get real help to get and keep jobs.
Skills Secretary John Denham said:
"We will not stand by and leave people abandoned on the dole with no support. Our primary aim is to keep the time people spend out of work to a minimum while making the return to work a stepping stone to a more skilled future. I would encourage people across the South West to take advantage of these training opportunities.
"In these tough times we must do all we can to help people back into work and prepare for the upturn when it comes. We know that people whose skills are most up to date find it easier to find a job and businesses with well trained staff are better placed to survive the recession and take advantage of new opportunities.
"We are currently refocusing the whole skills system, making it more flexible and able to adapt to meet the changing needs of people and businesses across the South West. "
The extra support also means that for the first time Further Education Colleges will be paid to get people back into work as part of moves to make the £5 billion spent annually adult skills and training work harder for those suffering as a result of the recession.
While the Government cannot guarantee existing jobs in any economic climate, the new measures will help people get the skills and qualifications that will boost their prospects of getting a new job.
The package aims to give people confidence that if they lose their jobs, there will be real help available so they can improve their skills or gain new ones so that they are fit for the jobs of the future. It will ensure that a period of unemployment can be an opportunity for people to gain the skills they will need to get on in work in the future, and take advantage of likely expansion areas as the economy improves.
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