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 £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 and may only be delivered by VCSE organisations that had a contract to deliver similar services under the previous round of European Union funding.
- 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 £11.6m 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. Information will be posted on this page at the appropriate time.
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 on this page in due course.
- For other projects, providers will be selected through mini-competitions among the organisations approved on the NTCA Skills Provider Framework. Providers qualifying on the Framework will be sent relevant opportunities to bid.
- For organisations not currently approved on the Provider Framework, there will be further opportunities to join the Framework. Updates about the next opportunity to apply to join the Framework will be published on this page in due course.
- Updates about forthcoming opportunities will also be provided via NTCA’s social media channels.
If you have questions or comments about the information on this page, please contact ukspf@northoftyne-ca.gov.uk
