Newark and Sherwood District Council has granted £150k from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund into Newark College, creating a programme designed to elevate the skills of the local workforce. This initiative aims to bolster organisational growth and foster development among employers throughout the district.
The grant is allocated across two years, supporting the College to deliver their ‘Boosting’ Programme in Newark and Sherwood. The initiative focuses on providing local employers with bespoke services, tools and resources to identify and implement organisational improvement opportunities, as well as aiming to support hundreds of employees through access to a variety of specialist training courses, helping to up-skill the workforce and encourage workplace progression.
The programme offers a range of support to local businesses, including access to team building activities, meeting facilities, online and face to face training courses for employees such as leadership, management, resilience and data training, as well as access to a variety of resources and analytics tools to help improve organisational performance.
Within the first half of the programme, more than 70 individuals successfully completed courses through the project to help them progress within their career, gain relevant skills required and remain in local work.
In addition, 27 local employers benefited from specialist support across a range of industries such as retail, manufacturing, construction, and the technological sector, including small and micro employers up to large scale enterprises. Support will enable businesses to upgrade their organisational processes and adopt new technologies, as well as offer enhanced support to employees through addressing unique workplace training needs.
Councillor Claire Penny, Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Economic Development at Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “As a champion of worked-based learning myself, I really understand how important investing in our people is. That’s one reason why we are proud to support Lincoln College and their Boosting Programme, which is a fantastic initiative that is supporting our local economy.
“The programme is providing essential support to local employers and helping them to overcome the challenges and opportunities presented by the changing economic landscape. The programme is also creating positive impacts for the local workforce, by enhancing their skills and career prospects.”
Penny Taylor MBE, Head of Newark Campuses at Lincoln College, said: “We are delighted to receive this grant funding from the District Council through UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which enables us to provide valuable support to local employers and their workforce in Newark and Sherwood.
“The Boosting programme is designed to help businesses grow and thrive by developing their skills, productivity, and performance. This allows the college to work alongside businesses as our mission is to be employer led supporting opportunities for them and for our students to work with local employers. We have already seen some great results from the programme and we look forward to working with more businesses in the area over the next two years.”
Support through the Boosting programme is currently available to local employers within Newark and Sherwood up until March 2025 and is subject to availability.
