European Social Fund

1
European Social Fund

• Aims
• Training
• Guidance
• Employment support

• Through
• Objective One
• all groups
• Objective Two
• strong links to ERDF actions
• Objective Three
• unemployed SMEs

Also through Community Initiatives, especially
EQUAL for the unemployed SMEs
2
ESF Development

• Programmes develop through stages
• Community Support Framework (EC)
• National programming documents
• Regional Development Plan

3
ESF linkages

• Objectives 2 and 3 are linked
• Objective 1 is hermetically sealed!
• Specific allocation of Objective 3 funds to
  Objective 2 areas
• Objective 2 areas can decide to take all of ESF
  through Objective 3

4
ESF fulfils strategy aims

• Human Resource Strategy - the example of
  Merseyside
• People who are out of work or at a disadvantage
  in the labour market to acquire and maintain
  relevant skills and obtain appropriate support to
  enable them to compete for employment or
  self-employment, and to contribute more
  effectively to the economy
• Young people to gain the skills and enterprising
  attitudes needed for entry to the workforce and
  to prepare them to realise their full potential
  throughout working life, and in particular to
  progress to higher level qualifications if they
  are able
• Employers (especially small and medium sized
  companies), the self employed, and individual
  people in the workforce to invest effectively in
  the skills needed for business creation and
  growth, and for individual success
• The market for vocational education and training
  to work better so that it responds to changing
  needs of employers and individuals quickly and
  effectively

5
ESF in Objective One

• Central to the achievement of these aims and the
  strategy is an approach which ensures a closer
  match between supply and demand and improves the
  functioning of the labour market. Account should
  be taken both of the specific skill requirements
  of business and also of the longer-term career
  development aspirations of the existing and
  potential workforce which have an important role
  to play in determining
• This will require effective and efficient
  mechanisms
• for identifying areas of employment growth, skill
  gaps and shortages and vocational training
  requirements for the short and medium to long
  term unemployed
• for ensuring the dissemination of this
  information to companies and training / education
  providers
• A labour market strategy group to take forward
  the task of co-ordinating this
• activity and help ensure that the different
  types of training and other activities
• are carried out in parallel in a complementary
  way avoiding duplication

6
ESF Measures in an Objective One programme

• Action for Industry
• PRIORITY 1 Inward investment and key corporate
  business development
• Measure 1.2 The specific training needs of the
  key corporate sector improving
• business competitiveness
• PRIORITY 2 Indigenous enterprise and local
  business development
• Measure 2.3 Support for specific training needs
  of SMEs

7

• Action for Industry
• PRIORITY 3 Knowledge based industries and
  advanced technology development
• Measure 3.2 Specific training in new technologies
• Measure 3.4 Specific training for environmental
  skills
• Measure 3.5 Knowledge based industries and
  advanced technological development
• PRIORITY 4 The cultural, media and leisure
  industries
• Measure 4.2 Better quality in the cultural and
  media industries
• Measure 4.4 Improving quality upgrading skills
  in the tourist industry

8
An example Measure 2.3 Support for the specific
training needs of SMEs

• 2.3.1 support for employers
• to collectively and individually to get their own
  structures right, e.g. to draw up training plans
  and to commit to and achieve Investors in People
• for pump priming to start employee development
  programme
• 2.3.2 support for employers to help young
  people achieve NVQs, including through
  apprenticeship schemes
• 2.3.3 recruitment and training packages
• for schemes that meet business needs as well as
  the needs of the priority groups I.e. the long
  term unemployed and those facing exclusion from
  the labour market
• graduate recruitment and retention measures
• 2.3.4 vocational training
• where it improves an employers capacity to train
  its own workers, e.g. trainer training
• to improve the management skills of supervisors
• vocational training in a number of clearly
  defined circumstances carried out or paid for by
  companies for their employees to obtain
  qualifications in the skills in the labour
  market, as identified by training audits,
  including access to training techniques
• 2.3.5 business start-up support, including
  employment aids, alongside an after care service
  of advice, counseling and training support for
  individuals establishing new businesses in their
  first year of operation

9
Criteria for selection

• Respond to needs of group
• and type of activity
• Typically they break down into
• eligibility criteria
• core criteria - shared by all measures
• priority criteria - for all in the priority
• measure criteria - specific

10
Eligibility criteriadetermine whether an
application is considered. This varies by
measure.

• 1.2 Enterprises with over 250 employees
  including all subsidiaries and holding companies
• 2.3 Enterprises with between 1 - 250 employees
  including all subsidiaries
• 3.2 Enterprises specialising in new technology
  with between 1-250 employees including all
  subsidiaries and holding companies
  
  Young people aged 14-19 still
  at school and living in Merseyside (3.2.1)
• 3.4 Enterprises specialising in clean
  technologies and environmental management with
  between 1-250 employees including all
  subsidiaries and holding companies

11
Eligibility criteria

• 4.2 Enterprises within the cultural media and
  leisure industries with between 1 - 250 employees
  including all subsidiaries
• Young people aged 14-19 still at school living in
  Merseyside (4.2.5)
• 4.4 Enterprises within the tourist industry with
  between 1-250 employees including all
  subsidiaries and holding companies
• Young people aged 14-19 still at school and
  living in Merseyside (4.4.5)

12
Core scoring criteria - Growth poles

• Gateways
• M62/M6 M53 corridors
• Distribution (ERDF, ERDFESF)
• Port/Port related docks
• Indirect impacts
• Liverpool Airport
• Catalyst for activity attracting
• associated industries in
• related and unrelated
• sectors

• Strategic Sites Premises
• Liverpool City Centre
• Central core as stimulus to economic regeneration
• Liverpool Bay
• Activities linked to the exploitation of oil and
  gas reserves
• HEIs
• Knowledge transfer

13
Core scoring criteria - Growth clusters

• Telecommunications / IT
• Financial/Insurance/ Business Services/
  Professional Services
• Glass
• Advanced Health RD and appliances
  /Pharmaceuticals /Chemicals
• Motor Vehicles
• Tourism
• Arts Culture
• Food / Drink

14
Core scoring criteria - Growth clusters

• Maximum points if 75 of the beneficiaries
  training in identified growth cluster industries

15
Core scoring criteria - Economic Value

• Growth Occupations 30,25,15
• Stable / Low Growth occupations 25,15,10
• Declining occupations 15,10,0

16
Additional Value to the Economy

• Industrial Classification
• Breakdown and Scoring
• Occupational Classification
• Breakdown and Scoring

17
Measure criteria

• 1 Project aims to develop a more systematic
  approach to training within the firm (20 points)
  (maximum points if project related to IiP,
  otherwise 8 points)
• 2. Project delivers NVQs (or nationally
  recognised equivalents) at Level 3 and above for
  more than 50 of beneficiaries (10 points)
• 3 Project enables the firm(s) to access training
  in a flexible way that suits their needs (15
  points)
• 4 Project involves the innovative use of the new
  information technology to deliver the training to
  the workplace (15 points)
• 5 Project develops networking between employers
  (15 points)
• 6 Project contains at least 50 private sector
  match funding (30 points) (9 points if over 36
  but under 50)
• 7 Evidence that 75 of beneficiaries are involved
  in activities within the growth clusters or poles
  identified in the MEA (10 points)
• 8 Project demonstrates that for those
  beneficiaries who are unemployed prior to the
  start of the project, 80 will still be in
  employment six months following the completion of
  training (10 points) (80 after 3 months, 6
  months)

18
Example Measure 3.2 Specific training in new
technologies

• 3.2.1 support for the costs of companies and /
  or other educational institutions providing
• information on science and technology
  opportunities for young people at or leaving
  school with particular attention paid to equality
  of opportunity between men and women
• support for the costs of exchange of personnel /
  students or familiarisation visits between
  schools other education establishments and
  industry.
• 3.2.2 support for the costs of
• training courses geared towards high -level skill
  needs in new technologies identified through the
  overall R D strategy
• post graduate scholarships in HEIs on Merseyside,
  with specific links to Merseyside skills needs as
  identified through the overall RD strategy
• 3.2.3 support for taking on graduates and other
  highly qualified personnel in companies, where
  there is a demonstrable need for support
• 3.2.4 training for the management of technology
  transfer or incubator centres
• 3.2.5 support for the costs of skill transfers
  between SMEs for the specific skills covered in
  this measure, including support for smaller
  employers to network together, and with large
  companies, and share facilities and expertise

19
Measure criteria

• 1 Project demonstrates a link to the needs of
  individual businesses (18 points)
• Links to be justified
• 2 Project delivers NVQs (or nationally recognised
  equivalents) at Level 3 and above for more than
  50 of beneficiaries (18 points)
• 3 Project develops networking between employers
  and HEIs/FEIs (25 points) (employers only 18
  points)
• 4 Project demonstrates that it will encourage
  directly the employment of graduates or graduate
  equivalents from Merseyside HEIs or FEIs or
  equivalently qualified residents of Merseyside
  (18 points)
• 5 Project demonstrates a fit with the strategy
  for technology transfer (30 points maximum, 15
  points for a medium fit)
• 6 Evidence that 75 of beneficiaries will be
  involved in activities within the growth clusters
  or poles identified by the MEA (16 points) (50
  of beneficiaries, 7 points)

20
Objective 3 priorities

• Adaptability entrepeneurship
• Improving the position of women

• Active labour market policies
• Equal opportunities
• Lifelong learning

21
Priorities

• Include related target groups
• A range of activities
• Break down into measures

22
Active labour market

• long term unemployed
• young people
• older workers
• inner city, peripheral estates, remote areas

23
Promoting equal opportunities

• People with disabilities
• ethnic minorities
• lone parents
• literacy and numeracy needs
• lacking key skills
• homeless
• leaving care

24
Lifelong learning

• Unemployed
• employed lacking basic skills
• older workers
• semi unskilled workers
• barriers to learning
• SME employees
• disaffected 14- 16 year olds

25
Adaptability entrepreneurship

• SME employees under threat
• SMEs in socially excluded areas
• business start ups self employed
• community businesses
• knowledge based industries
• SMEs in regional target sectors
• managers without qualifications

26
Improving the position of women

• Occupational disadvantage
• home workers
• returners
• single mothers
• socially excluded groups

27
Criteria for the unemployed

• Measures focusing on the unemployed have three
  main types of criteria
• reflecting the disadvantages of the group
• reflecting the needs of the economy
• reflecting the appropriateness of the training

28
Disadvantaged groups

• Longer term unemployed
• Specific disadvantages in the labour market
• physical infirmity,
• prejudice on the basis of ethnic group,
• language
• age
• family responsibilities

29
Economic need

• Priorities are for
• growth occupations
• growth industries
• high value added areas
• high skills
• chronic skill shortages
• complementing national or regional developments

30
Appropriateness of action

• The action must enable the beneficiary to have a
  good chance of a job. Thus priority goes to
• vocational rather than purely theoretical
  learning
• work experience and links with employers
• employer involvement
• guidance in job search