Serco : selected to deliver skills programme to support SMEs

Date: 15 Nov 2016

Serco's Employment, Skills & Enterprise business has been selected by the Skills Funding Agency to deliver 14 new Skills Support for the Workforce (SSW) contracts, providing training, to help upskill the workforce of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Under the contract, Serco will provide support in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Heart of the South West (Devon and Somerset), Dorset, Swindon and Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, South East Midlands, Coventry and Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Stoke and Staffordshire.

Under the 18-month programme, Serco will work in partnership with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to provide IT, leadership and management training, as well as run vocationally-relevant courses targeting specific areas of improvement. The overall focus is to help support growth in priority areas like engineering and manufacturing, retail, creative industries and renewable technologies, to name a few, helping to boost the wider, regional economy.

As part of the SSW programme, co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Skills Funding Agency, Serco will work with a number of expert training providers to offer recognised accredited qualifications and bespoke training courses aiming to enhance employees' skills, increase the competitiveness of local businesses and boost the local economy.

Through SSW, eligible businesses can benefit from fully funded training, tailored to their specific needs. Fully-flexible training takes place at employees' workplace and businesses can select full qualifications or mix and match individual units that are directly relevant to their work. Previous SSW programme participants have benefited from increased employee confidence, motivation and productivity and improved employee loyalty and retention.

Gareth Moss, Serco's Director for Employment, Skills and Enterprise, said:

'I am delighted that Serco has been selected by the Skills Funding Agency to manage the new SSW programmes in a number of regions, in partnership with the LEPs.

'We have previously delivered this programme in Gloucestershire, Dorset, Swindon & Wiltshire, and Heart of the South West and are grateful that the SFA has trusted us once again to deliver this important service. So far we have supported over 1,500 businesses with training for their workforce and over 6,000 employees have benefited from our service.

'As part of the new phase of SSW programmes, we look forward to working with each LEP and our providers, to enable many more businesses to take advantage of SSW training to upskill their staff and grow their businesses.'

Businesses can contact Serco on skillssupport@serco.com for more details and to find out if they are eligible for funded training through Skills Support for the Workforce.

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For more information or interviews, please contact:

Marianna Barillec, Marketing Manager, Employment, Skills and Enterprise, 0121 683 4108, marianna.barillec@serco.com or Marcus De Ville, Group Head of Media Relations, 07738 898550, marcus.deville@serco.com.