European Social Fund

Where?

The whole region including the Business Board (LEP) area

What will it do?

• Help participants to find employment and overcome barriers to bring them closer to employment
  • Eligible participants are either 26 weeks inactive or unemployed or people with at least one barrier to employment

How many learners?

• 1726 people into employment from program starts
• 1451 of these job starts into more than 3 months of employment
• 1148 of these into more than 6 months of employment

What is the impact?

• Over 1700 people into employment, the remainder of the participants to moved closer to employment
• Of those moving into employment 1451 of these should remain in employment for more than 3 months and 1148 of these should stay in employment for more than 6 months
• Those who do progress into employment have/will receive support on career progression and maintaining employment

Where?

The whole region

What is it for?

• Provide access to employment for job seekers and inactive people, including the long term unemployed and people far from the labour market
• To support people with multiple and complex barriers to participation to address these underlying issues and to move closer to or into the labour market
• Enhance equal access to lifelong learning
• Improve the labour market relevance of education and training

How many learners?

• 1730 starters on the course

What is the impact?

• Support people into employment by identifying the skills and knowledge gaps that exist
• Achieve this by providing sector specific and relevant skills and training alongside building the confidence in people to make them work fit and work ready within a flexible model
• Support individuals and individual needs
• Focus on key priority regions across market towns, priority sectors for employment and specific target groups, all of which are reported on monthly to ESF

Where?

The whole region including Business Board (LEP) area

excluding Uttlesford and North Hertfordshire

What will it do?

• Support young people at the risk of becoming NEET
• Support young people into employment
• Support young people to become independent
• Support young people to move into education or an apprenticeship

How many learners?

• 1342 starters

What is the impact?

• Reduce the number of individuals at risk of becoming NEET
• Enhance the lives of young people and giving them independence

Where?

North Cambridgeshire

What will it do?

• Increase participants’ confidence, capability and resilience
• Ensure they are ready to enter and remain in employment
• Promote civic participation to help local people engage with their communities

How many learners?

• 721

What is the impact?

• Move all unemployed and economically inactive participants closer to the Labour Market
• Work with the hardest to reach participants especially those with multiple barriers to work or those that feel socially isolated
• All participants increase confidence and are given help and support to overcome barriers to work

Where?

Mid to South Cambridgeshire

What will it do?

• Tackle social isolation by supporting participants to engage more with their communities
• Support participants to overcome their barriers to work
• Work in conjunction with Local Authorities, other ESF programmes and projects
• Ensure learning from the project is incorporated into the local strategy and commissioning.

How many learners?

• at least 242

What is the impact?

• Overcome their barriers
• Improve their self-esteem and confidence
• Engage with their friends, family and community in a more positive way
• Improve their skills for work, such as their basic skills (English, Maths and IT), timekeeping, reliability, ability to job search, etc
• Improve their job specific experience and skills
• Once in employment, training/education, or job-search the project will continue to offer support until these results are sustainable

Where?

Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and West Norfolk

What will it do?

• Provide coaching for those furthest from the job market on money, getting online and getting back to work
• Help people in financial crisis to build a stable base, gain skills and confidence and move closer to job market
• Aim to reduce stigma around talking about money and debt
• Focus on link between financial exclusion, digital exclusion and a person’s ability to get into employment

How many learners?

• 596 starters

What is the impact?

• Free up mental ‘bandwidth’ to enable participants to focus on improving their confidence and skills and move towards employment
• Improve IT skills ensures participants are ready for Universal Credit and able to engage with on-line job search as well as being more employable in this digital age
• Teach the skills to help people build financial resilience and know where to go to get help
• Help them with their CV, job searching skills and interview techniques

Where?

Peterborough, Kings Lynn  & West Norfolk and Fenland

What will it do?

• Build a full picture of the participant and desired direction & personal development
• Create a better position & ability to progress
• Break down past barriers with tailored support, skills and training
• Open doors to volunteering, work experience
• Increase understanding of employers of the needs and value of this workforce

How many learners?

• 280

What is the impact?

• Focus on social inclusion and tackling poverty
• Support a significant number of those furthest from the labour market back into work by offering innovative, personalised support
• Provide a tailored package of barrier busting interventions- designed and commissioned with participants
• Build confidence, self-belief, skills and ability

Where?

Wisbech

What will it do?

• Address ‘poor employment opportunities, economic inactivity and work poverty’
• Address ‘barriers to employment such as low aspiration, crisis, poor health, lack of basic skills & education’
• Address ‘poorly integrated and marginalised people and communities’
• Address ‘poor access to services, transport, information technology and advice’

How many learners?

• 150 to date, 1184 by June 2021

What is the impact?

• Help unemployed participants into employment (including self-employment) on leaving
• Enable inactive participants into employment or job search upon leaving

Where?

East of England

What will it do?

• Complement and support mainstream provision
• Increase value for money from other projects
• Better prepare those socially excluded to make a positive contribution to society
• Help offenders move towards mainstream provision or into employment
• Address their barriers via appropriate support mechanisms tailored to individual need
• Emphasis is placed on those considered ‘hardest to help

How many learners?

• 774

What is the impact?

• Help the participant to access and engage in meaningful activities
• Provide specialist bespoke interventions that are designed to meet their individual needs
• Target barriers to their progress and the root cause of previous behaviours
• Break the cycle of reoffending
• Engage offenders who are currently not benefiting from mainstream provision
• Provide employment training and education opportunities

Where?

All of the region

What will it do?

• Provide funding to upskill employees
• Help to train and upskill within small and medium employers
• Support employees at risk of redundancy or that have been made redundant within the last 3 months

How many learners?

• 2065

What is the impact?

• Up-skill employees
• Progression into work, education and apprenticeships
• Reach out to rural businesses

Where?

All of the region

What will it do?

• Increase number of employers engaging with Apprenticeships
• Increase number of people having an awareness of the advantage of apprenticeships

How many learners?

• 1852

What is the impact?

• More businesses looking to recruit apprentices
• More businesses looking to apprenticeships as staff development
• More people aware of apprenticeships as a career option both at start of careers and as a development option

Where?

All of the region

What will it do?

• Provide a one-stop-shop for providers, schools, colleges, higher education, parents, learners and employers
• Connect employers, training providers and learners
• Create a dynamic Skills Marketplace

How many SME’s?

• 207 – Small and Medium Enterprises successfully completing projects (which increase employer engagement; and/or the number of people progressing into or within skills provision)
• 276 SMEs engaged – Number of supported micro, small and medium-sized enterprises supported

What is the impact?

• Improved engagement of businesses, partners and public sector stakeholders to identify the skills needed both now and in the future
• Greater visibility of talent to support businesses with recruitment/ training and greater visibility of employment and training opportunities to young people / learners to better match skills with demand.
• An improved connection between businesses and the 72 schools in the CPCA area through a strong brokerage service and the STAR Hub digital platform, resulting in all schools and colleges offering excellent careers education that is aligned to business needs and the local labour market, archived through information, resources, tools, training, and communities of best practice (please note this is a CEC target and not a direct ESF target but forms a part of the overall offer)
• Provision of targeted support to 3000 employers by 2020 & 40,000 employers by 2024 in order to reduce the number of vacancies/ Apprenticeships not filled.