Residents across North West share £32.5 million to retrain and get new jobs

Apr 16 2009 by Chris Smith, Chester Chronicle

PEOPLE across the North West are benefiting from a £32.5m government investment in skills and training to help them get and keep jobs through the downturn.

Across the region, the government re-orientated the skills and training budget, to invest:

£19m to make skills and training available for people who have lost, or fear they may lose, their jobs;

£13.5m to help people who have been unemployed for more than six months access skills and training to help them back into work.

The funding is part of the £4.5bn the Government is spending on adult skills nationally, and will be used to ensure that more people can get the benefits this training brings.

A record number of people have already gained vocation qualifications through the Government’s Train to Gain programme.

In the North West, the number gaining valuable work-related training increased from 12,400 in 2006/07 to 30,400 in 2007/08. In Cheshire, it rose from 600 to 2,100 in those same years.

Skills Secretary John Denham said: “We have acted to ensure people have access to the skills and training they need to keep their jobs or get back into work.”