Businesses love our colleges too

The West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges (WYCC) will be supporting the ‘Love Our Colleges’ campaign during a national awareness week this week (15-19 October).

WYCC is running a complementary campaign throughout October to highlight the opportunities for businesses to access college training programmes through its recently-launched Skills Service.

Louise Tearle, Partnership Director for WYCC said, “Colleges have become more creative in the face of funding pressures in recent years; a subject being highlighted by October's Love Our Colleges campaign during Colleges Week.

“By working collaboratively, we aim to allow colleges and our other partner organisations to seize wider opportunities and work more closely with businesses. We know that it’s not just students who love our colleges, we’ve had some great feedback from businesses who are able to find college training programmes for employers in one place on our website.”

“The Skills Service provides businesses with an easy gateway to colleges and training partners, support with funding and an expert skills planning service. We aim to bridge the skills gap in this region in line with the demand from industry.”

The Skills Service offers SMEs in the Leeds City Region free skills planning advice from a skills advisor, 40% European Social Fund funding towards training eligible employees and the opportunity to shape the future of training provision across the region.

Businesses can find out more about accessing college training through The Skills Service.

The ‘Love Our Colleges’ campaign is a partnership between Association of Colleges (AoC), National Union of Students (NUS), Association of College and School Leaders (ASCL), University and Colleges Union (UCU), GMB, TUC, National Education Union (NEU) and UNISON.

ENDS

Notes to editor

European Social Fund

The West Yorkshire Consortium of College (The Skills Service) is receiving up to £7.5 million of funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England. The Department for Work and Pensions (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for the England European Social Fund programme. Established by the European Union, the European Social Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support skills development, employment and job creation, social inclusion and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.