Our team of impartial Skills Brokers can help you to access funding, local grants and government incentive schemes to help up-skill or re-skill your employees. We can also support you to recruit new apprentices as well as identifying apprenticeship routes for existing employees.

This project is part-funded by the European Social Fund.

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Why use the Skills Brokerage Service?

Finding the time to plan training is never easy, especially when you have a business to run. Even when you do find the time, finding the training – and the money to pay for it – is often just as difficult. Our aim is to connect the dots between local businesses and training providers, making the most of funding available to deliver the skills you need.

Our Skills Brokers know the training landscape inside out. They will do the hard work for you, free of charge, helping you to get your training back on track.

We can help your business in a variety of ways, including:

Bespoke assessment and advice
We know that every business is different, so instead of you searching for providers yourself, we take the time to talk so that we can get to know your business and identify your plans and ambitions, challenges and opportunities. Based on this understanding, we’ll work with you to build a bespoke skills and training plan that is right for the individual members of your team and for your business as a whole, both now and in the future.

Easy access to funding
One of the biggest barriers to training is often the cost. Our Skills Brokers are fully aware of the range of funding available for skills across the City Region, and can help you to find and apply for funding.

Making the most of apprenticeships
Apprentices offer companies and organisations across multiple sectors, and of all sizes, a fantastic opportunity to create a skilled, motivated and adaptable workforce. Whether you are an apprenticeship levy paying organisation or not, our Skills Brokers can work with you to utilise existing apprenticeship funding and ensure you can access both national and local incentivised grants. Skills Brokers can also facilitate apprenticeship levy transfer, keeping levy funding within the City Region to benefit local businesses.

Course selection
We have a wide range of course available to help bridge any skills gaps you may have in your business. Our Skills Brokers will be able to talk through just what courses and funding is available for your business.

Recruitment
We can support employers to understand the whole range of funding streams available across the City Region which can assist employers to recruit new staff as well as providing ongoing skills development to retain existing staff.

Please note: Organisations interested in accessing funded training under Be More should note that a State Aid (De Minimis) check will be undertaken by a Skills Broker’s before they undertake an Organisational Needs Analysis. Any businesses that have been in receipt of less than €200,000 of State Aid over the last three year rolling period will be entitled to a free Organisational Needs Analysis. Please note that the cost of this free service will be added to the organisation’s De Minimis State Aid total going forward. For reference, any COVID-19 related support received should not be included in any State Aid calculation.

Examples of courses we can fund

There is a vast array of courses available to choose from that cover areas such as:

• Business Management & Finance
• Construction, Engineering & Manufacturing
• Hair & Beauty
• Health & Social Care
• Hospitality & Retail
• IT, Digital & Creative
• Languages
• Marketing & Sales
• Physical & Mental Health
• Soft Skills

The full list of courses for the above areas can downloaded as a PDF file HERE.

Be More: Bridging the skills gap in Liverpool City Region

Unemployment and inactivity are two of the biggest economic and social issues facing the UK, with national statistics highlighting that 11.3% of people aged 16-24 are currently unemployed.

This compares with a figure from the latest data of 10.1% for the Liverpool City Region; with a population of around 1.5 million, this accounts for roughly 10,000 people in the same age bracket.

These figures certainly point to a skills gap both across the country and in our region. But alongside this, many people currently in employment are lacking the skills necessary to take the next steps to progress in their careers. Therefore, upskilling both those in and out of employment is paramount to the economic prosperity of LCR.

What is the skills gap, which skills are people lacking and which industries need help?

The skills gap refers to a fundamental disconnect between the skills that employers require from their employees and the skills that jobseekers possess. In LCR, there are various basic employability skills that people are not developing which are widening this gap.

These skills include literacy, numeracy, written and verbal communication, and digital proficiency – including the use of basic software and programmes. These skills are vital in order to thrive in the workplace, as well as being an essential building block of everyday life.

In LCR, there are five main job roles which currently possess a high demand for upskilled workers – these are nurses, social care workers, HGV drivers, warehouse workers, and customer service advisors. However, the skills gap exists on a much broader scale and the need to upskill the workforce will benefit both employers and employees in almost every sector.

What can we do to bridge the skills gap in LCR?

Getting people into apprenticeships across the region is an important part of bridging the existing skills gap, allowing people to learn on the job and develop new skills. Apprenticeships and practical courses provide highly relevant learning opportunities to those who undertake them, as well as equipping businesses with strong workforces to enable LCR to thrive.

An apprenticeship is a job with training which provides valuable and transferrable skills and knowledge, helping individuals to develop their chosen career. Compared to more traditional routes, such as further and higher education, apprenticeships provide real workplace experience, the opportunity to develop communication and life skills, and the chance to ‘earn while you learn’.

As well as equipping people with the skills and qualifications they need to pursue a career in their chosen field, apprenticeships offer considerable value to employers.

According to government statistics, 74% of employers say that apprentices improve product and service quality, and 78% report improved productivity across the board, demonstrating the mutually beneficial relationship between apprentices and employers.

As a skills portal connecting employers and employees with learning and development opportunities, Be More is actively working to remedy the skills gap in LCR, providing businesses with opportunities to upskill, grow talent and develop the most qualified workforce possible.

From March to September, LCR-based employers will also be able to access a wide range of fully funded courses. These courses are drawn from four key areas that have been identified by LCR businesses as particular skills requirements for their workforces: Basic Business Skills, Soft Support Skills, Leadership & Management & Hospitality.

With so many options for developing your team, it can be hard to know where to start. Our Skills Brokers can help you with that too – identifying the most appropriate avenues for you to pursue. Skills Brokers work with employers in all sectors across LCR to help plug skills gaps and to identify funding routes, as well as local providers who can deliver the training they require.

Be More funding can be used to support bespoke training as well as qualifications that cannot be funded through any other funding route. Skills Brokers, therefore, understand the skills landscape at both a funding and delivery level.

What are the benefits of investing in your existing workforce?

By upskilling current staff, overall productivity is positively impacted and the quality of the work produced by employees increases due to the broadening of knowledge. Learning and development in the workplace is also of great value in terms of knowledge sharing, allowing employees to cascade learnings to their colleagues, benefiting whole departments or indeed organisations.

Giving existing employees access to learning and development opportunities is a powerful way for employers to invest in their teams, because when employees progress, this has a material impact on the success of the business as a whole.

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