Skills Funding Agency - ESF Funding 2007 - 2013 Yorkshire & Humber

The Learning and Skills Council handed over its responsibilities to the Skills Funding Agency from 1 April 2010.

The Skills Funding Agency is one of two successor organisations to have emerged from the closure of the Learning and Skills Council and was established in law by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. It is a new agency set up by the government to fund and regulate adult skills training in England. The Skills Funding Agency is an agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and will work alongside the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA) and Regional Development Agencies (RDAs).

It’s the role of the Skills Funding Agency to ensure that government funding gets to the organisations that provide further education and skills training in England and to fund and regulate adult FE and skills training. The Agency is part of a network of organisations in the country who commission, manage and market training for adults to ensure that people and businesses can access the skills training they need to succeed in playing their part in society and in growing England’s economy. This is done in the context of policy set by BIS and informed by the needs of businesses, communities and regions, and sector and industry bodies.

Website: http://www.skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk

This section is solely for those within the Yorkshire and Humber Region.

There is a Help page to explain how this Skills Funding Agency ESF Portal is organised.

There is a whole section of this website on Commissioning which you can access from the main menu above. If you are seeking to tender you will find pages which may help you in Commissioning - Information for Groups around Commissioning & Procurement

The 2007-2013 ESF programme will be delivered through Co-financing Organisations. The Yorkshire and Humber region will be in receipt of approximately £250 million. The Learning and Skills Council secured in excess of £140 million for commissioning activity for Priority 1 and Priority 2 and this responsibility has now passed to the Skills Funding Agency.

Priority 1

Extending Employment Opportunities

Central to our approach in developing a more coherent set of skills and employment services the Skills Funding Agency will work alongside DWP/JobCentre Plus and regional stakeholders to ensure a consistent set of interventions which will support people into work. The aim is to develop a series of route ways from worklessness into sustained employment building on good practice identified within the 2000-2006 ESF programme and other initiatives.
This priority will tackle barriers to work faced by unemployed and inactive people, with a particular emphasis ondisadvantaged groups such as:

• people with disabilities and health conditions (including people with mental health conditions and learning difficulties and disabilities);
• lone parents and other parents who face barriers to work;
• older workers aged 50 and over;
• people from ethnic minorities;
• people with no or low qualifications; and
• young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or at risk of becoming NEET.

Priority 2

Developing a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce

The Skills Funding Agency will work closely with employers, Work and Skills Boards, employer organisations and Third sector organisations to increase the skills of the workforce. We will work alongside the Regional Skills Partnership (RSP) to ensure that we address the regional skills priorities and with the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Development Agency (Yorkshire Forward) and economic partnerships.
Priority 2 projects will develop a skilled and adaptable workforce and will target:

• Basic Skills
• Level 2 and Level 3 Qualifications

Please follow this link for background information on the 2007-2013 ESF
Programme: http://www.esf.gov.uk/info_for_cfo_and_projects/guidance.asp 

Delivery of Programme

The Skills Funding Agency Co-financed programme is divided into 4 themes:

• Adult
• Youth
• Employer responsive
• Other
• Redundancy

Each of these has its own section and you should follow the link to the section you are interested in.
These web pages are provided by fit4funding on behalf of the Skills Funding Agency.
The Skills Funding Agency can be contacted via the following:

Skills Funding Agency
Mercury House
4 Manchester Road
Bradford
BD5 0QL
Tel: 0845 019 4169
Fax: 01274 444 005
Email:

Website:

Regional contacts can be found at Website: http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/aboutus/contactus/offices/

Current Tenders:

Click here to download Directory of  ESF projects in the Yorkshire and Humber Region
commissioned by the Skills Funding Agency.

Make the Skills Pledge

It is envisaged that all Partners who are delivering ESF provision for the 2007 -2013 programme will Make a Skills Pledge:

Click here for background information on the Skills Pledge and to check if the ESF partner that you want to work with has made a Skills Pledge
For more details of the national scheme and to make The Skill Pledge visit Website:https://skillspledge.broadsystem.com/Home.aspx

Click here for background information on European Funding

Evaluation of Programmes

The Skills Funding Agency has commissioned an an Evaluation of the ESF Programme in Yorkshire and the Humber 2009-2011. Use the link in the menu on the left  to read more about this.
 

Download Current Information of Deadlined Tender and Funding Opportunities for Yorkshire & Humber.

Skills Funding Agency Web use Survey

fit4funding are conducting a survey on the use of the Skills Funding Agency ESF Co-financing Portal. Please take a few moments to let us know about your use and experience of using this facility.

Thank you. 

Skills Funding Agency Yorkshire and the Humber
Mercury House, 4 Manchester Road, Bradford BD5 0QL
Tel: 0845 019 4169 Website: www.skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk