Skills for Business programme closure – statement from OxLEP

Below is a statement from OxLEP in relation to our European Social Fund programme’Skills for Business’: 

We are extremely disappointed to announce that our Skills for Business programme closes on Friday 30 July. This is due to ongoing uncertainty of funding with the programme’s funders unable to provide the necessary assurances of ongoing support beyond this July. 

Our Skills for Business programme does however leave a fantastic legacy. Since it was launched in the winter of 2019we have supported over 360 businesses – from a variety of sectors – to evaluate their skills and learning needscreating practical solutions as well as upskilling hundreds of business employees from right across the county. 

Despite having to close Skills for Business we will ensure that those businesses who are yet to complete the programme receive the right level of support in the coming weekshelping them to complete their respective upskilling programme. 

We were delighted to run such a beneficial and valuable programme for Oxfordshire-based businesses during what was – and continues to be – a critical time for our economy and will ensure as many businesses as possible continue to benefit from our many other support programmes.  

Since the first lockdownOxLEP has supported over 2000 Oxfordshire-based businesses with COVID-specific issuesproviding almost £2million-worth of advice and mentoring in process – we look forward to supporting even more businesses in the coming months and beyond.