£350 Million to Support Small Business (England)
In response to the current difficult economic conditions, the Government has announced that it will be making available £350 million available for small businesses to help them train their staff. The funding which forms part of the Government's Train to Gain scheme - that supports and subsidies staff training will focus on providing skills to businesses that will increase the productivity of individuals and firms.
Priority will be given to small businesses with less than 250 employees. All publicly funded organisations - i.e. Government Departments, Agencies, NDPBs, the Health Service and Local Government organisations - will be classed as being in the public sector - and so will not be eligible for this extended offer through Train to Gain. In addition the government will be relaxing the rules governing the Train to Gain package to ensure that the maximum number of SMEs will benefit from these measures. This will be supported by a new communications campaign to beg! in next month to underline the benefits of upskilling and reskilling and the breadth of the support on offer from Government....
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=381864&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True