New Skills Consulting

Almost £0.5 million of funding has been secured to deliver additional higher level skills training for North East employees, thanks to a successful bid from a consortium of regional training providers, developed with the support of economic development consultants New Skills Consulting.

This Train to Gain provision, funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), is being delivered by three regional training providers led by Key Training Group's North East division. The consortium's combined expertise spans the engineering and technology, financial and professional services, renewable energy, food and drink and social care sectors. 

The project is designed to broaden the training provision in key industry sectors and to support the economic recovery of the North East, by providing a single access point for employers which will enable the delivery of 223 NVQs at levels 3 and 4 between now and December.  The provision has been developed response to  the latest Train to Gain research which reveals that 80% of employers would be likely to recommend the service, and use it again.

Key Training approached New Skills Consulting for support in developing the successful bid after the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) North East invited tenders for the provision of workforce development training in the region.

New Skills Consulting - a Tyneside firm dedicated to improving the region's economy by delivering support to organisations involved in developing skills, enhancing employability and growing businesses - played a key role in developing the successful bid.  The company worked closely with the consortium to design the training programme in line with the project requirements and European Social Fund (ESF) eligibility and selection criteria.

New Skills proposed that in order to broaden their training remit to target the specific sectors identified, Key Training, specialists in training for office based occupations, should partner up with two complementary training providers - MCQ Training, which works in the health and social care sector and Brenikov Training, specialists in hospitality, food and drink.

Chris Russell, director at New Skills Consulting who acted as lead consultant for the project, said: "We're very pleased to have been able to support this successful funding bid which is designed to increase the take-up of training provision within key sectors of the region's workforce.  With our experience in bid writing and tender compliance, we were able to help develop and coordinate the partnership of training providers, design a project that met all of the selection criteria, and develop a high quality, cost-effective bid."

Janice Eighteen, regional director of Key Training, said: "The awarding of this bid will enable SMEs in the north east to access funding for staff to complete NVQ qualifications at levels 3 and 4 which will enable employers to upskill their workforce, enhance staff confidence and makes them feel valued.

"New Skills Consulting really benefitted this project.  Having worked with them previously I felt their knowledge and expertise would be really helpful and would allow us to continue operationally.  New Skills made the whole process very easy and were supportive throughout."