Colleges welcome new fund scheme (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Colleges welcome new fund scheme

8:35am Wednesday 13th May 2009

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Colleges across Bradford district have been given a share of £83 million to get long-term unemployed people back to work, the Government has announced.

A funding pot has been made available to 20 colleges to train people who have been unemployed for more than six months.

They include Bradford College, Shipley College and Park Lane College in Keighley, which has been re-named Leeds City College.

Calderdale College and Kirklees College are also included in the list of those who can bid for additional funding, Skills Secretary John Denham announced yesterday.

The scheme will provide 75,000 training places for people struggling to find jobs in tough economic conditions, he said. Courses will be matched to the local job market, from retail to hospitality to vocational training at the equivalent of A-level standard.

People who take up the courses will also be able to continue their training once they get a job.

The extra training places will come as a boost to workers at major Bradford companies such as Grattan, who face redundancy after their employers announced swingeing job cuts.

Mr Denham said: “We will not stand by and leave people abandoned on the dole with no support. Our primary aim is to keep the time people spend out of work to a minimum while making the return to work a stepping stone to a more skilled future. I would encourage people to take advantage of these training opportunities.”

The announcement is part of moves to make £5 billion spent annually on adult skills and training work harder for those suffering in the recession. The scheme means that, for the first time, Further Education Colleges will be paid to get people back into work.

Mr Denham said: “In these tough times we must do all we can to help people back into work and prepare for the upturn when it comes.”

A Shipley College spokesman said: “This additional funding is excellent news for the region. Shipley College has a keen commitment to support local communities within Bradford through the downturn and helping people train for the skills of tomorrow’s workforce.”

A Bradford College spokesman said they were delighted to be involved.

e-mail: marc.meneaud@telegraphandargus.co.uk

Out-of-work figures rise

Unemployment has jumped by almost a quarter of a million to take the total to 2.2 million, official figures revealed yesterday.

Data due to be published today was released a day early, and showed the biggest quarterly rise in the number of people looking for a job since 1981 – 244,000.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance increased by 57,100 to 1,513,000, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS took the highly unusual step of bringing forward the eagerly-awaited news after revealing that some data had been accidentally released early.

The UK’s unemployment total is now 2,215,000, the worst figure since 1996. The quarterly unemployment increase was 12.4 per cent of the total and was worse than many analysts had predicted.

The number of people in work fell by 157,000 between January and March, while job vacancies were cut by 51,000 to 455,000, the figures showed.

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