The York Conservative led City of York Council has helped secured £7.4m of funding for the community and voluntary sector over the next three years which is designed to help people who struggle to access training and find work. The City of York Council’s lifelong learning team, York Learning, is one of the partnership organisations that will benefit from a new North Yorkshire partnership that has secured the funding.
The funding has been secured for the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) from the Big Lottery Fund and other sources, to develop the programme called Action Towards Inclusion.
The aim of the partnership is for key workers and specialist organisations to identify people in need of support and to find them the right training. The help will be flexible and address the physical, psychological, financial and skills-related barriers that prevent them from accessing training, education, job searches and, ultimately, employment.
York Learning already works with a broad range of local residents, supporting them to develop their skills and abilities. In the past the council’s team has found that, under similar programmes, 86% of the participants achieved a learning qualification, and 25% found a job- with 76% of those finding a job staying in employment.
Cllr. Keith Myers, the Conservative Group spokesperson for lifelong learning said:
“The Conservatives have always championed apprenticeships, access to learning initiatives and other efforts to help people seek good jobs. This represents a significant pot of money coming to York which will help our hard-to-reach residents who don’t always have the confidence to engage with traditional efforts and will help fund York organisations, including York Learning, who are already doing fantastic work in this area.”