![[honda logo] - click here to visit the Honda (UK) Web site](/media/1990/honda-tpod-grey.gif){kind=small}
How Honda Apprenticeships are Funded
As a Honda Apprentice you will not be asked to fund any part of your Honda Apprenticeship. Honda Apprenticeships are part funded by Honda and part funded by the Government for those that are eligible for Government funding. For those that are not eligible for Government funding, Honda funds the whole Apprenticeship. The information below provides information on how Government funded is provided in England and Scotland.
In England, your Honda Apprenticeship Programme is part funded by the Skills Funding Agency. The Skills Funding Agency receives some of their funding from The European Social Fund (ESF).
The European Social Fund (ESF) was set up to improve employment opportunities in the European Union and so help raise standards of living. It aims to help people fulfill their potential by giving them better skills and better job prospects.
As one of the EU’s Structural Funds, ESF seeks to reduce differences in prosperity across the EU and enhance economic and social cohesion. So although ESF funding is spread across the EU, most money goes to those countries and regions where economic development is less advanced.
The ESF is a key part of the EU’s strategy for growth and jobs. It supports the EU’s goal of increasing employment by giving unemployed and disadvantaged people the training and support they need to enter jobs. ESF also equips the workforce with the skills needed by business in a competitive global economy.
The 2007-2013 England ESF programme is investing £5 billion over seven years of which £2.5 billion is from the ESF and £2.5 billion is national funding.
By the end of February 2010, there had been 1,314,714 participant starts on the programme. It is already having an impact on the lives of people at a disadvantage in the labour market, helping 87,602 unemployed or inactive participants into jobs, and about 140,273 participants have gained basic skills or qualifications. 125,373 disadvantaged young people have been helped to enter employment, education or training.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has overall responsibility for ESF funds in England. DWP manages the England ESF programme at a national level and liaises with the European Commission in Brussels. Each region has its own ESF allocation to fund projects to address its regional jobs and skills needs, within the framework of the two priorities in the England ESF programme.
At the regional level, ESF funds are distributed through public agencies such as the Skills Funding Agency and DWP. These agencies are known as ‘Co-financing Organisations’. Their role is to bring together ESF and domestic funding for employment and skills so that ESF complements domestic programmes. The Co-financing Organisations contract with the organisations or ‘providers’ that deliver ESF projects on the ground.
From 1 April 2010, the Skills Funding Agency took over the ESF Co-financing Organisation responsibilities of the former Learning and Skills Council. For ESF provision for 14-19 year olds, the Skills Funding Agency works in partnership with Young People’s Learning Agency and local authorities.
Scotland
In Scotland, your Honda Apprenticeship Programme is part funded by Skills Development Scotland.
Created in 2008, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) which brought together the careers, skills, training and funding services of Careers Scotland, Scottish University for Industry (learndirect scotland) and the Skills Intervention arms of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise. SDS employ 1,400 staff and have a network of public access centres and offices across Scotland.
When Skills Development Scotland was launched in April 2008, it marked the start of a step change in the delivery of careers, skills and training services in Scotland.
Skills play a central role in raising employment levels and productivity and are fundamental to ensuring Scotland’s businesses have the capability to compete successfully both now and in the future. But, as recognised in the Scottish Government’s skills and economic strategies, the acquisition of skills alone is not sufficient. Skills Development Scotland are tasked with catalysing real and positive change in Scotland’s skills performance by linking skills supply and demand more effectively and helping people and organisations learn, develop and utilise these skills to greater effect.
In the first two years of operation SDS have created a forward-looking organisational structure, recruited staff to complete the skills requirement and are now working to finalise and implement the systems, processes and programmes needed to support the strategy.
SDS are developing the new partnerships – at local and national level – that are fundamental to their ambition, forging new collaborations with, amongst others, local authorities, the Scottish Funding Council, colleges (through a new Colleges Forum), NHS, schools and a wide range of industry and enterprise bodies.
SDS’s vision is to be a catalyst for positive change in Scotland’s skills performance. To achieve our purpose and vision, we have devised three goals, each with key strategies which articulate our unique contribution to the achievement of the Scottish Government’s Economic Strategy (GES).
To read more, visit: http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/
