Northumberland County Council - Training, recruitment and redundancy

Training, recruitment and redundancy

Find out which training and recruitment opportunities may be available to support your business through the pandemic.

Northumberland County Council is working with the North of Tyne Combined Authority to create job placements for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit.

What is the Kickstart Scheme?

The Kickstart Scheme provides local employers the opportunity to offer young people a 6-month job placement in their business, funded by the Government.

In offering these placements, your organisation can support young people to develop work ready skills for your sector, while also expanding your staff and supporting your business through Covid-19 challenges.

Each placement is fully funded for 25 hours work per week for 6 months
Employers can spread the start date of the job placements up until the end of December 2021
As an employer, you will receive funding to cover 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or the National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant).
As an employer, you will receive funding to cover National Insurance contributions and automatic enrolment contributions.

How do I get involved?

If you’re an employer and would like to get involved, please pre-register your placement opportunities:

Click here to register your interest by filling in our online form.

Please note: This opportunity is provided by the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and supported by Northumberland County Council. Any expressions of interest will be forwarded to NTCA. The council can support businesses throughout the process.

Further information about the scheme

The North of Tyne Combined Authority have more information about the scheme on their website - click here to learn more.
Click here to read more about the Kickstart Scheme on gov.uk
Click here to view the Kickstart guide for employers

The Northumberland Covid Business Response (NCBRP) programme has been designed to help businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic to recover and restart.

It is funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority’s Covid-19 Capacity Fund and delivered by Advance Northumberland on behalf of the County Council and the Northumberland Business Hub.

There are two strands to the programme:

Business Advantage

This provides access to 12 hours of 1-2-1 coaching or consultancy for businesses looking to explore new methods of business delivery, increase productivity or become more resilient. It is open to large businesses and SMEs across the county.

Digital Advantage

This support will enable SMEs from across the county to introduce digital tools into their day to day business activity. These tools include e-commerce websites and proactive digital marketing campaigns to expand and reach new customers. Businesses in the hospitality sector could have the chance to create bespoke apps fully funded for their business.

Contact us

For more details and to register your interest go to: www.northumberlandbusinessresponse.co.uk or email business@advancenorthumberland.co.uk

Employers can contact the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) to arrange a meeting to discuss support needs and how the National Careers Service can support the work force with access to Rapid Response training and other areas of training, skills, CVs, job searching, employment opportunities and benefits.

Please click on the links below for more information:

The aim of the Community Chest VCS Skills & Employability Fund is to to support VCS organisations currently delivering support to the skills and employability sector to adapt to new digital delivery demands, and address digital exclusion on service users.

For more information, please contact: communitychest@northumberland.gov.uk

Grants are supported with funds from the North of Tyne Combined Authority as part of its Inclusive Economy ambitions.

Please click on the drop-down boxes below for more information:

Purpose of Grant Funding

Northumberland County Council, working with the North of Tyne Combined Authority, is responding to the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic and effects on the labour market by supporting our businesses and communities to adapt.

The Northumberland voluntary and community sector (VCS) is playing a key role in supporting the resilience of communities and residents in the face of an economic downturn. Discussion with the sector has identified the need to adapt services to deliver by digital and remote means to continue giving residents the employability and skills support needed as the labour market changes. The Community Chest - VCS Skills and Employability Fund will allow organisations to become more digitally agile in the services they can deliver, and by raising the digital skills and access of residents to engage with them.

The grant funding is available to any Northumberland VCS organisations delivering a broad base of skills and employability services to residents. This can include any activities which help residents improve the skills and attributes needed to enter the labour market, training, jobsearch, advice and guidance, and general support for progression in work.

The focus of the grant fund is to assist organisations to develop or convert services to be delivered digitally to those who would normally require face-to-face delivery. This can include services or equipment needed to support residents in the lockdown and post-lockdown period, and to raise digital ability to short labour market resilience in the longer term. A ‘digital divide’ has been identified as disadvantaging some communities and cohorts of people in their labour market prospects, particularly those in deprived areas and people who are unemployed or experience insecure employment. The fund should be used to demonstrate closing of digital divide in longer term

The fund can support where additional capacity for digital delivery is required as demand increases from existing unemployed or economically inactive people who need support, along with responding to the needs of those newly displaced in the labour market.

Eligible activity

Eligible costs can include a range of delivery and/or equipment demonstrating conversion or development of services to be delivered digitally.

This following list identifies examples but is not exclusive, and innovative proposals which meet the specification are invited.

Digital conversion of existing learning and support packages
New, or development of, software packages
Webinar packages
Online support platforms delivering guided and advice
Consultancy or advice for design of products
Costs of increasing social media communications.
Cost of IT equipment to enable digital learning and support delivery packages
Delivery costs of IT skills training and support
Cost of equipment for participants to access services (e.g. tablets, laptops, iphones etc.)
Data or broadband costs (This may include an increase of data allowance for participants to access services through smart phones or other devices).

Grant details and eligibility

Grant Details

Minimum Grant £2,000
Maximum Grant £10,000
100% intervention rate (no match funding required)
Grants are available for both equipment and day to day running costs related to the project
Closing date is at noon on 22 January 2021
Projects cannot start before 1 February 2021 and be completed by
30 June 2021

Eligibility

Applicants must be a not for profit Voluntary Community Sector organisation, Charity or Social Enterprise
Applicants must show they are currently delivering Skills, Employability or Inclusion services
Beneficiaries must be domiciled in Northumberland although the delivery organisation does not need to be
Previous applicants are welcome to reapply