UKSPF – People and Skills

UKSPF funding will be invested in activities supporting local residents to secure jobs, stay in work, and progress their careers through skills development. This will include: one-to-one support to help economically inactive people overcome barriers to work, such as lack of basic skills or health problems; supporting people to stay in work by helping with childcare or improving their skills; and helping people currently in work to update their skills so they can do jobs in the growing ‘green economy’.

A total of up to £11.6m UKSPF revenue funding is available to invest in People and Skills activities in the North of Tyne area up to March 2025.

The funding will support projects and activities in three programme areas.

People and skills activities will deliver the following UKSPF outputs and outcomes:

• People with improved employability
• People improving basic and life skills
• People accessing mental and physical health support
• People with reduced barriers to work or training
• People gaining qualifications and skills and / or re-training
• People engaged in jobsearch
• People progressing into education or training
• People progressing into jobs (including self-employment)

Key headlines

The Government has allocated the majority of the available People and Skills funding to support activities in the third year only of UKSPF from April 2024 to March 2025, meaning that only limited funding is available for activity in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Based on Government guidelines, the funding that is available for 2022-23 and 2023-24 has been earmarked for employment support for out-of-work residents.

In addition to the planned UKSPF funding for People and Skills identified above NTCA is providing millions of pounds in additional funding for other activities. This includes the devolved Adult Education Budget, Skills Bootcamps, and the NTCA Skills for Growth programme targeting investment to upskill residents for the good jobs available across the region. NTCA is also investing in Employment Partnerships to enable a more collaborative and joined up approach to employment support activity.

This means that total investment in People and Skills in the North of Tyne area up to March 2025 will be significantly greater than the investment available through UKSPF alone.

Approach to allocating UKSPF funding

The available UKSPF funding has been earmarked to support the following projects and activities in each Programme area, as described in the North of Tyne UKSPF Investment Plan approved by Government. For each project / activity, the approach to allocating the funding and the timescales for interested organisations to submit bids is shown.

In addition to the above, further commissioning of other UKSPF people and skills projects / activities may be undertaken in due course. Details to be published as and when available via this page and as per below.

Information for organisations interested in delivering UKSPF funded people and skills activities:

• There will be two main routes for organisations interested in bidding to deliver the above projects and activities.
• For some projects, providers will be selected via open bidding calls available to suitably qualified organisations to submit proposals.
• Details of open bidding calls will be published via the NTCA UKSPF Funding page.
• For Skills to Progress in Work / Green Skills training – providers will be selected through mini-competitions among the organisations approved on the NTCA Skills Provider Framework Lot 4.
• Providers qualifying on the Framework will be sent relevant opportunities to bid.
• Updates about all forthcoming opportunities will also be provided via NTCA’s social media channels and website.
• Updates on the outcomes of calls and mini competitions will be publicised via the North of Tyne website.
• Project specific pages will added in due course to the relevant sections of our Education, Inclusion and Skills homepage.