Leaders First Funding

Leaders First Funding – An Introduction

Leaders First is available for any organisation with 5 to 249 employees (paid or unpaid) to support Training and Development for a key member of staff within an organisation. The funding is to support the improvement of skills through coaching, mentoring or working towards a qualification.

Eligibility

Enquiries will be considered from Managing Directors, Owner Managers, Directors or other Key members of staff from organisations employing 5 or more people. Those who have already accessed Leadership and Management Funding through the Learning and Skills Council in recent times will not be eligible however.

What how much funding is available?

Up to £1,000 is available – the first £500 is paid towards eligible development with the next £500 paid on a match funded basis ie., if the total cost of the training is £1,500 then the first £500 would be paid by Leaders First, and the next £1,000 paid between the organisation and Leaders First at £500 each. Any further expenditure would need to be met entirely by the organisation.

How will Challenge Consulting work with you to access the funding?

If there is a training requirement for a key member of staff (as a stand alone or as part of a larger group), we will work with you to help to design a training intervention which will suit the skills and knowledge required and the learning style/culture of the delegate(s) and your organisation. Added value can be gained, as if the skills and knowledge identified for the key member of staff would also be of benefit to others in the business, there is nothing to prevent others from attending the sessions/training. The Leaders First Funding however is targeted and measured against the benefit to the key individual identified.

Is there a requirement for the training to be Accredited?

No, although qualifications can be funded. The focus of the Leaders First Funding is to match the requirements of the intended recipient with the skills and knowledge which they require to help them to lead the business forward. Those skills, knowledge (and behaviours), may be very specific to the individual, or the business. This would still be eligible for Leaders First Funding.

First Steps to Access Funding

We will, upon your request, send out to you a funding referral form to complete which we will then forward to the Learning and Skills Council on your behalf. This form will be used to establish eligibility. The Learning and Skills Council will then contact you and arrange for a skills broker to do a skills audit with the identified individual from the business. Once the funding is approved, the training must start, usually, within 60 days of approval. There is however no timescale attached to when the training must finish (although this must be reasonable to ensure maximum benefit to the participant(s).

Please download the attached leaflet for use in your own business to promote the scheme.

For further information, please contact us on the number below, or use the contact form.