"Beyond 2010" is managed by Essex County Council and it has just been announced that current arrangements will continue through 2011.

Training can provide a way for businesses to push into a new area of work, improve employee skills or make current activity more effective. It can be used to address a wide range of business needs from management skills to computer design techniques to give that all important competitive edge.

This service covers the following sectors and is funded by the European Social Fund and the East of England Development Agency:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• ICT & Audiovisual
• Financial & Business Services
• Food & Drink Chain
• Tourism in support of Olympics
• Life Sciences
• Energy
• Social Enterprise
• Sustainable Communities and the Built Environment
• Transport Gateways and Logistics

If your business falls within one of these sectors, you may be able to access up to 70% funding towards any training which addresses a critical need within your organisation and will help the business to develop. This could cover areas such as:

• Performance Management
• Appraisal Skills
• Communication Skills
• Project Management Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Change Management
• Team Development
• and many more.....!

Some alterations have been made both to the eligibility criteria and the scope of activities that are covered by the grant element of the programme. These are as follows:

Eligibility:- Organisations in scope for the service are either private sector businesses or social enterprises which employ fewer than 250 full time employees and have at least one employee in addition to the eligibile beneficiary.

Beneficiaries must be the owner / MD / CEO of a business or social enterprise if it employs 50 people or less.

If the business or social enterprise employs more than 50 people, a beneficiary who reports directly to the owner / MD / CEO can be considered.

Eligible organisations must also be able to demonstrate growth or growth potential.

Funded Learning & Development MUST address one of the following areas:

Developing a highly effective personal leadership and management style (including strategic thinking and effective communication).

Creating a joint enterprise culture with the workforce (including developing an innovative, creative and productive culture for the organisation; developing productive working relationships; reducing and managing workplace conflict). Planning and developing an effective organisation and teams (including recruitment, selections and departure; building and managing effective, creative and innovative teams; conveying vision and objective setting). Leading and managing employee high performance (including employee motivation and commitment; delivering value; learning and development). In some very limited circumstances, other proposed leadership and management development activity which supports the beneficiary to fully engage and make full use of their workforce may be approved but this will require additional approval from the Skills Funding Agency.

Funding is dependent on meeting all eligibility criteria and will need to be fully matched by the beneficiary organisation on a pound for pound basis, excluding the VAT element. So, for example, if an organisation eligible, and the approved learning and development costs £1,500 excluding VAT, the organisation may be eligible for a grant of £750. No unmatched funding is available. Previous beneficiaries of this programme may be eligible for further support but must meet the eligibility criteria in the application form, including demonstrating growth or growth potential.