The skills landscape and funding for business
Here, you will find information that might help inform your thinking in developing a bid for round 2 of the Employer Ownership of Skills Pilot.
Improving the quality of further education and skills training
To improve quality and efficiency in further education and skills training, the government is:
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introducing a new funding system based on student loans: it’s for people aged 24+, studying at levels 3 and 4, or for advanced and higher apprenticeships
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freeing colleges from central government control
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making FE teacher training more professional
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providing better careers advice
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introducing a new traineeships programme to support young people aged 16 to 24, to develop skills for employment, including apprenticeships.
Find out more about these initiatives and to download respective publications: Improving the quality of further education and skills training
Driving forward economic growth in the UK
Publications that examine the sectors and conditions needed to contribute to economic growth in the UK.
Industrial Strategy: UK Sector Analysis
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills economics paper no.18 (Industrial Strategy: UK Sector Analysis) analyses a range of evidence on which sectors could make the greater contribution to future economic growth and employment in the UK. It considers in which sectors government action could add most value, including advanced manufacturing, knowledge intensive traded services, and enabling sectors.
Download: Industrial Strategy: UK Sector Analysis
No stone unturned: in pursuit of growth
Independent report by Lord Heseltine looking at how to increase growth. Makes 89 recommendations which aim to inject stability into the economy, create the conditions for growth and maximise the performance of the UK.
Download: No stone unturned: in pursuit of growth
Further information on the initial government response can be found in the Autumn Statement 2012, chapter 1b: growth.
Find the right funding for your business
Government is working with businesses and organisations to enable people to access help and advice to start and grow their business. ‘Business in You’ or www.gov.uk provides access to all the help available.
Find a business mentor at www.mentorsme.co.uk to help you develop your ideas and grow your business. There are over 114 mentoring organisations on the portal (operated by the British Banker’s Association (BBA)), providing access to over 22,000 business mentors, including over 10,000 volunteer business mentors from the small business community, recruited and trained via the Get Mentoring initiative.
The Government recently launched GrowthAccelerator. The aim of GrowthAccelerator, is to increase the number of small businesses that achieve rapid growth. It will help small businesses with potential, overcome barriers to growth.
If you are a manufacturer go to the Manufacturing Advisory Service: which has helped around 8,500 firms improve productivity and grow since the new national MAS was launched in January 2012.
The people and skills you need to grow: Last year over 500,000 new apprenticeships began (provisional data). Businesses of all sizes are using apprenticeships to help recruit and develop the people they need – with the government funding all or much of the costs of training, plus incentive payments for small and medium firms who take on new young apprentices.
Finance for growth: Government support for SMEs available through banks includes guarantees for bank loans, reduced interest rates, and export finance.
Loans: Since May 2010, government has guaranteed over £1.045 billion of lending to over 10,200 SMEs (EFG).
Export finance: Since May 2010, UK Export Finance has supported over £416m (excludes a single defence export contract of £1.92bn) of export contracts under its short-term products, while providing support of £9 billion across its entire product range. Ask your bank or visit www.ukexportfinance.gov.uk
Equity : government has supported £94.5m of venture capital investment in over 70 SMEs since May 2010, through Enterprise Capital Funds
Business Finance Finder: search for publicly-backed and private sources of finance that can help you to start and grow your business
Grants: The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is a £2.6 billion fund operating across England from 2011 to 2016. It supports projects and programmes that lever private sector investment to create economic growth and sustainable employment. The first 3 rounds allocated £2.4 billion which will leverage over £13 billion of private sector investment and create or safeguard over 500,000 jobs. Round 4 is now open for applications and will allocate a further £350m.
Innovate to grow: the Technology Strategy Board helps SMEs develop new products and services and access technology. Since May 2010 the TSB, both directly and through Knowledge Transfer Networks, has helped thousands of SMEs.
