Proskills welcomes £350 million training fund for SMEs

PROSKILLS, the sector skills council (SCC) which represents the extractive and mineral processing industry, has welcomed the announcement of a £350 million government training fund for small-to-medium-sized businesses to help build the skills of their workforce with the minimum level of bureaucracy and delay.

Commenting on the news, Terry Watts, chief executive of Proskills, said: ‘This latest government announcement offers a significant boost to the businesses in our sector footprint, many of which are small, privately owned companies that, while recognizing the importance of training their staff, often lack the resources to follow through on their vision to upskill employees and improve their workforce.’

The £350 million central training fund is in addition to the £62 million funding that has already been pledged to Proskills’ employers as part of its own sector Compact Agreement.

Announcing the funding, Skills Minister the Rt Hon John Denham MP, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), said: ‘We know that firms which invest in skills do better than those who don’t, which is why we will be urging small businesses to take up this offer from government. Small businesses are an important engine of our economy and we must make sure that we support them during tough economic times.’

Key elements of the £350 million ‘Train to Gain’ package, which is planned to rise to £1 billion by 2010–11, include: Relaxing the rules to allow funding for small ‘bite-sized’ units or modules of qualifications in subjects known to be important to SMEs; Relaxing the rules to allow workers to get training and funding up to levels 2 and 3; and Brokers to offer tried and tested skills diagnostics and audits so companies can have their training needs more accurately identified and addressed.