Council Responds to Business Needs

Lanarkshire businesses can now access three new training grants for their employees.

The new programmes are aimed at boosting the competitiveness of a business while giving employers the chance to further enhance their commitment to employee development.

They have been put in place by South Lanarkshire Economic Development in response to a Business Needs Survey carried out in 1999. The survey highlighted that around 400 businesses were looking for help with identifying staff training needs and linking them to future development plans.

So what are the new grants?

Training in Employment (TIE): this grant provides wage subsidy support for up to 26 weeks for new and additional jobs along with the payment of external training fees which result in nationally recognised qualifications (the training programme should be up to 104 weeks).

Lanarkshire Training Fund (LTF): provides grant support for eligible companies requiring short external training to increase the basic skills level of their workforce.ard to the types of companies eligible for this support.

Trainees must be full-time employees of the company and, where possible, the training should result in modules towards recognised qualificiations up to SVQ Level II or equivalent. Grant support of up to 50% of training costs to a maximum of £1000 is available.

Lanarkshire Business Training Grant (LBTG): is a two stage programme which provides comapneis with a free Training Needs Analysis (stage one) and grant support for identified training needs resulting in a minimum of SVQ Level II or equivalent (stage two).

The Training Needs Analysis will be linked to a previously defined business plan stragey and will result in Training Action Plans being provided for individual employees identifying the types of training each requires.

The grant support - 50% for SVQ Levels II and III and 80% for SVQ Level IV and above - should result in employees achieving a minimum of SVQ Level II or equivalent.

In January 2001 the Council received the results of two applications for additional funding towards two of these schemes under the new Objective 3 ESF programme. Lanarkshire Training Fund has been awarded £100,000 of additional support with Lanarkshire Business Training Grant gaining over £500,000, both on a Lanarkshire-wide basis. This additional funding will allow significantly more companies to benefit from these schemes in the new 12 months.

Business South Lanarkshire - Winter 2001

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