The West Yorkshire Combined Authority has recently announced that the Shared Prosperity Fund Pillar 3 People and Skills Invitation to Bid is now live and has been published on the WYCA website ukspf-pillar-3-west-yorkshire-invitation-to-bid-final-271023.pdf (westyorks-ca.gov.uk).
The People and Skills Pillar is designed to boost core skills and support adults to progress in work, by targeting adults with no or low-level qualifications and skills in maths, and upskilling the working population, supporting disadvantaged people to access the skills they need to progress in life and into work, supporting local areas to fund local skills needs and supplement local adult skills provision and reducing levels of economic inactivity and moving those furthest from the labour market closer to employment.
This call aims to deliver against a number of UKSPF national interventions including enrichment & volunteering activities to improve opportunities and promote wellbeing. The list of outputs sought include the number of people accessing mental and physical health support leading to employment and number of volunteering opportunities supported.
The Invitation to Bid seeks projects in three Call areas allocating £10 million of funding across West Yorkshire:
1. Call Area 1 – Work and Health Programme
2. Call Area 2 – Community Grants Programme
3. Call Area 3 – Youth Unemployment Programme
To find out more about the Invitation to Bid, WYCA are holding an online support ‘workshop’ for prospective applicants on Wednesday, 8th November 2023, 2.30pm to 4.30pm, to explain the Call areas and the application process, and to hear from partner councils about their local priorities. Register for the event here.
This will be a good opportunity to find out more about the requirements of the programme and consider opportunities for organisations to bid. The Call prioritises bids developed in partnership with others and can demonstrate clear established links with partners across the region and actively encourages applications from consortia or other similar types of partnership arrangements.