Government Pilot Scheme: Employer Ownership of Skills

The UK government have announced an exciting opportunity for funding in your own skills, training and education provision.

Government is piloting a £50Million scheme into Employer Ownership of training and we at BASCA have decided to form a consortium to get the music industry on board and benefitting from this funding. As this is exactly what the title states - employer driven - we are reaching out to our members to see who would like to participate. We must emphasise here that as a sole-trader you are considered an employer. We expect the vast majority of our members to be sole-traders or run micro SMEs.  

Being freelance or running an SME does not mean you ever stop learning and indeed a good portion of what BASCA provides for its members are skills development in the way of our seminar program and related membership services. We would very much like to be able to develop these services and proper funding from Government would allow us to do so.

BASCA as a trade body cannot lead a bid but we are participating in an organisational capacity as are all of the members of UK Music. We are also being advised by Creative and Cultural Skills. However we do require the participation of our members, as employers, to put in an effective bid.

The summary of our bid is as follows:
 

Raising the productivity of the UK Music Industry through skills, education and training

The UK Music industry delivers £4.2 Billion GVA to UK PLC per annum (CC Skills 2008). With over 7,900 businesses employing nearly 125,000 people (CC Skills 2011) this is a vibrant and economically resilient sector.

However the industry is going through a process of radical change in order to meet the demands of emerging technologies and the fast changing customer models that are transforming the way we produce and consume music globally. Ensuring the UK Music industry remains productive and competitive is essential. Skills, training and education are a fundamental part of meeting that productivity challenge.

Objectives are -
> To raise skill levels in existing industry jobs and in emerging roles
> To deliver higher productivity and other additional benefits
> To ensure training standards are consistent and coherent enabling UK businesses to ensure workers are mobile and able to respond quickly
> To improve competitiveness by raising skill levels and subsequently the UK music economy

Outcomes are -
> Cross industry raising of skill levels and productivity
> Improved linkage between education, training and employers
> Improved relationships between HE/ FE and schools in working in partnership with employers
> Improving entry routes into the UK Music Industry
> Promoting equality and diversity for new recruits and those wishing to work in the UK Music Industry

 
Further information about this scheme can be found here.

If you would like to find out more and perhaps become a named employer on our bid please email Vick Bain in the BASCA office.  

We have two meetings this week in which we are putting together the detail: Tuesday and Thursday afternoon between 2 and 5pm in the BASCA boardroom. If you would like to attend please do contact Vick.