Kirklees College has partnered with six other West Yorkshire colleges, Go Higher West Yorkshire and the Textile Centre of Excellence to give businesses a simple way to access funded training and advice.
As part of the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges’ Let’s Talk Real Skills project, the colleges and educators are offering SMEs in the Leeds City Region a free ‘Skills Plan’ service.
A Skills Plan can help businesses to establish their training needs and access funding or support that can help them achieve their ambitions. Skills Plan sessions are short, one-to-one meetings with a member of our Employer Engagement team.
The new online enquiry service provides a simple gateway to book a session with one of the region’s leading training providers and allows businesses to access the training they need.
Many businesses have already benefited from a Skills Plan and have made crucial relationships with contacts who have helped make the most of their training budgets.
Jonathan Price, Commercial Sales Manager at Kirklees College said:
“Kirklees College is committed to supporting all residents and businesses across Kirklees with their skills and development needs. We work closely with our employer partners to ensure the right skills for industry can be found locally through our various apprenticeship and training programmes. We are looking forward to continuing our collaborative approach with local businesses to support the local economic recovery and create new opportunities for young people.”
Joanne Patrickson, Projects Director at the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges added:
“It is important for businesses to have a simple method to get in touch with us, or one of our partners. Booking a Skills Plan is a great way to make that first point of contact so we can understand the skills needs and link the business to the right funding or opportunity. The engagement we have with businesses also provides us with the insight to develop future, collaborative skills programmes in the region.
“Each of our partners have a dedicated business engagement team who carry out the Skills Plans. We find that these sessions often develop into long-term relationships and businesses will come back for support and advice over many years.”
Businesses can request a free Skills Plan here: book.westyorkshirecolleges.co.uk and choose Kirklees College.
Let’s Talk Real Skills is managed by the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges and funded by the European Social Fund. To be eligible, businesses must be an SME (under 250 employees) based in one of the following districts: Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby, Wakefield or York.
For more information, visit https://www.kirkleescollege.ac.uk/employers/.