The award of £8.5 million to support workforce development and apprenticeship take up in Cumbria was great news, but engaging enough businesses was always going to be challenging, particularly given the tight timescale.

This European Social Fund (ESF) and Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) backed funding scheme is a consortium made up of the Cumbrian FE Colleges, the University of Cumbria and number of training providers, plus other strategic partners, including Cumbria Chamber of Commerce. The project is led by Carlisle College.

With our communications expertise and proven track record of successful business engagement, plus a database of 16,000 active business contacts, it was agreed that the Growth Hub was ideally placed to lead on business engagement, as part of this implementing a major awareness raising campaign to promote the opportunities and benefits to Cumbrian employers and engage them in the support available.

Our role in this key initiative is a perfect fit for the Growth Hub, drawing on our key strengths in communications, business needs analysis and brokerage – as well as our trusted position among Cumbrian businesses.Rob Johnston MBE FCIM, Chief Executive of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce

The Growth Hub was also the obvious choice to undertake independent Training Needs Analyses with businesses and provide an impartial brokerage service. A key benefit of the Growth Hub’s involvement is our ability to ensure training is linked into wider growth plans and that businesses benefit from the full range of business support available to them, whoever delivers it.

Over the course of the project the Growth Hub will deliver 2800 TNAs across Cumbria. This will not only help those businesses get the training they need to grow, it will also provide the evidence base to help shape the skills delivery service of the future. The Growth Hub is the only organisation with the capability to achieve this.