CLOSED: Improving the labour market relevance of education and training systems in Hertfordshire (OC17S19P1275)

Call to run a project that will provide an independent, impartial advisory service which to small and medium size employers (SME) within the county boundary of Hertfordshire to support the identification and development of skills needs.

This call is now closed. Please do not submit an application for this call. The information provided on this page is for reference purposes only.

Details

The successful applicant(s) will provide an independent, impartial advisory service which will target small and medium size employers (SME) within the county boundary of Hertfordshire. The service will provide expertise to engage SMEs in order to support the identification of Skills Development needs of individual employees, to assist the SME to prioritise identified needs, to assist the SME to identify appropriate solution provision, to ‘broker’ the relationship between the SME and the successful project(s) and to provide ongoing support for an agreed period. It is envisaged that the contracted project(s) will enable greater engagement of SMEs and as a consequence increase the number of SMEs in Hertfordshire who have a formal training plan/budget, the number who undertake training for their employees, the number of SMEs who recruit an apprentice and a decrease in the number of SMEs who state that having a skills gap is having an impact on the growth of their business. The project(s) will assist the SME to identify and prioritise the development needs of their staff and to identify the appropriate solution to the identified need. The successful project(s) will be required to stipulate the outcomes that will result from the intervention.

Successful applicants will be expected to:

  • develop capacity for the provision of an independent, impartial skills advisory service
  • develop a consistent methodology for the delivery of a company-based training needs analysis and resulting company owned action plan
  • engage SMEs, with a focus on those who have not previously invested in a formal training plan/budget
  • develop a ‘live’ database a relevant and quality assured training provision
  • provide on-going support to those SMEs successfully engaged, in order to maximise impact of agreed solutions
  • develop an evaluation framework for the service to include opportunities for case studies/PR
  • work closely with the Hertfordshire Growth Hub to ensure an integrated offer to Hertfordshire SMEs
  • work closely with the Hertfordshire Skills & Apprenticeship Information Portal to both promote the portal and to offer advisory services where requested via the Portal
  • provide real time analysis of employer needs to the Hertfordshire Skills & Apprenticeship Information Portal and LEP.
    For more information, download the call specification.

Location

The project must cover the Hertfordshire LEP Area.

Value

Approximately £ 500,000 of funding is available.

Deadlines

Full application deadline: 22 April 2019

Completion date

The project must be completed no later than 3 years and 6 months after the proposed start date.

How to apply

To apply for funding under this call you will need to complete and send the Full Application form to the email address provided in the call document. The guidance provides information to help you complete the form.

You are also advised to read the details in the call documents in order to produce an application that complies with the requirements and meets the needs set out in the Operational Programme. All this information, the related guidance and the European Social Fund Operational Programme can be found from our homepage.

Where to send completed applications

Completed Full Applications must be submitted to 2014-2020.esfapplications@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Failure to send completed applications to this email address by the deadline in the call specification will be ineligible for consideration.

Contact details

Contact esf.2014-2020@dwp.gsi.gov.uk with queries linked to accessing or using the specification, forms, guidance etc.

No applications are to be sent to this email address. Completed applications must be sent to the email address provided in the ‘Where to send completed applications’ section above / Section 9 of the Call Specification.

Updates to this page

Published 28 January 2019
Last updated 1 May 2019 + show all updates
  1. Improving the labour market relevance of education and training systems in Hertfordshire (OC17S19P1275) project call is now closed.

  2. First published.