Extra training is being provided for HGV drivers and food production is becoming more automated thanks to funding worth more than £1.6 million from the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
Five projects have received funding totalling £1,649,788 from the Greater Lincolnshire Labour Market Support Fund to help address labour market challenges in the area.
Job vacancies across Greater Lincolnshire are at an all-time high, but employers across all sectors are experiencing labour shortages caused by the combined impact of the pandemic, a reduction in migrant labour from EU, and a desire for a better work-life balance.
The five schemes which secured funding were:
Greater Lincolnshire LGV Driving Academy
MODAL Training Centre, Immingham
£286,275
Drive 2 Work
Lincoln College and Stamford College
£747,343
Professional Driver Development Programme
Boston College
£265,284
Production Line Automation
Worldwide Fruit, Spalding
£150,886
Business Capacity Development for Best Practice Recruitment and Development
SkillsReach, Lincoln
£200,000
“Many of our businesses are experiencing a perfect storm of adverse conditions which together are making it extremely difficult to recruit and retain high-quality employees,” said Clare Hughes, Skills and Employment Executive Manager at the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.
“The Greater Lincolnshire Labour Market Support Fund was created to address these challenges, and we’re very pleased to have agreed grant support for five projects which we’re confident will make a big difference.
“We look forward to seeing these projects come to fruition, and we would encourage other businesses to contact us for support and advice if they are experiencing difficulties recruiting and retaining staff in this challenging period.”
The Driving Academy project will deliver four driver academies over two years to train participants to become qualified LGV (large goods vehicle) drivers and meet high levels of demand in the ports and logistics sector.
MODAL will operate the scheme from its training centre in Immingham, training personnel who are already in post.
Drive 2 Work is a partnership between the Lincoln College Group (LCG) and the Inspire Education Group (IEG) to provide bespoke driver training that will enable local logistics employers to appoint new employees to hard-to-fill vacancies.
The Professional Driver Development Programme will provide a steady pipeline of part-qualified professional drivers to fill the vacancies in the LGV and PCV (passenger carrying vehicle) sectors. This will reduce the time it takes for employers to develop a fully licensed driver, reducing recruitment and training costs while ensuring safety and improving the number of drivers in the area.
The Production Line Automation project at Worldwide Fruit Ltd proposes to automate the end-of-line manual tasks to reduce the reliance on an increasingly scarce and unskilled labour pool in Pinchbeck and the wider surrounding area.
The automated system features robots, conveyors and software and will be installed at the firm’s existing facility in Pinchbeck.
SkillsReach will provide a business support package to address the current labour market situation. Interventions could include a diagnostic process to identify the barriers to overcome; support to optimise recruitment and staff retention; advice where challenges are particularly sector related; improved labour market intelligence; advice on staff engagement and development planning; leadership and management development programmes; and employer-led careers events and work experience programmes.
The £1.7m Greater Lincolnshire Labour Market Support Fund was created by repurposing existing reserves at the LEP’s disposal.
