Our Programmes
The Social Contract Programme
The Social Contract programme is a £1.7million programme of activity funded by the government’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund via Oxfordshire County Council and led by OxLEP Skills.
The aim is to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic related to the impacts of health and wellbeing through unemployment, barriers to employment, education and training. OxLEP Skills has created a series of initiatives to help support those most impacted i.e. young people (aged 16-24 years), minority ethnic communities, those furthest from the labour market and the over 50s.
‘Grow Your Own’ campaign
Employers with an annual pay bill of £3m+ pay 0.5% of this as an apprenticeship levy. Employers are able to pledge up to 25% of their levy annually. Levy can be pledged to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), charities and social enterprises to help fund apprenticeship training amd assessment.
The programme’s Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Advisors offer support and guidance, which includes helping employers to unlock their apprenticeship levy and enabling smaller organisations to access unused levy in order to start or develop their apprenticeship schemes. This support is already pre-funded so is at no cost to the employer.
‘No Limits’ Programme
This programme is being delivered on behalf of OxLEP Skills by SOFEA and Aspire. The programme is funding 5 triage workers to be located a SOFEA’s food larders across Oxfordshire to support food larder customers with any skills and employability support they might require. Also on offer are IT equipment and training and travel bursaries to support access to employment or training.
For more information: email Taraji or call 01235 510774.
OxGROW Virtual Mentoring Platform
The aim of the platform is to introduce job ready individuals (mentees) to experienced business volunteers (mentors) to can help with skills and employability questions/queries, such as developing resilience, CV writing and preparing for interviews.
Business support tool
We encourage all businesses interested in our Social Contract Programme to complete the OxLEP Business Support Tool so that we can better understand your needs and provide you with targeted help, advice and support.
