Grant Funding

How do you know if you need a grant?

The classic response is that without it you wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of the programme. But you might also want the reassurance of knowing that with government backing it will have been quality assured and that there is recourse in the event of incompetent work.

Let’s look first at what is available

Government Funded

• Train 2 to Gain - which fully pays for employees with low educational qualifications to attain an NVQs. No financial contribution from employer
• Leadership & Management - contributes £1000 towards training an MD in the management of people. £500 contribution from Employer
• Business Link advice - up to 3 days of suggestions by a consultant. Typically £1000 grant and £500 from the business
• European Social Fund - full funding of very specific projects, usually seminar based, to train Employers of a certain size in socially useful skills in precise industries and postcodes
• Local Authority Business Improvement schemes - variable throughout UK

Government grants for businesses improvement are in long term decline but where they still exist; we at Hambleden Group know where to find them and can top them up with grants from private sources in most cases.

So for every client or prospective client who is concerned about project cost we construct their programme to fulfill as many grant criteria as possible. Commonly, we can provide the first 3 months of work free of charge in this way. Following that, our aim is to provide further grants and additional cash from performance improvements so that the whole programme can be financed without the business spending any of its own cash reserves.

If government grants are important to you, the message is don’t delay.

As we write this in late 2009 it is clear that public sector finances are moving into crisis and we are seeing many government grant funds closing in some UK regions already. We will not know until the Chancellor’s next budget whether any of these will be replenished