20 December 2005 - Publication of DWP research report 303: Evaluation of the European Social Fund Objective 3 Support for Companies
The England ESF Objective 3 programme provides £2.9 billion to support national employment and skills policies in 2000-06. This research provides information on how ESF funding is improving skill levels in companies. This will help to inform the remainder of the 2000-06 programme, and the development of any future ESF programme in 2007-13 (subject to the outcome of EU budget negotiations).
ESF support has been provided to around 100,000 companies in England during the current (2000-2006) programme. This is equivalent to around 5% of the total number of businesses in England (of around 1.95 million) and around 40% of all companies with more than 250 employees.
Most of the activity supported is in the form of short-course training, with much directed at managers and supervisors and relatively few projects aimed at operatives.
Nevertheless, ESF was found to have considerable strength compared with domestic funding regimes in its relative flexibility and a good deal and range of ‘added-value’ was identified, both at the level of projects and at the level of business participation in ESF-supported activity.
The activities supported that had greatest potential to impact on business competitiveness were mentoring and training of managers, notably in relation to managing cultural change (managers in the small businesses studied were in fact found to constitute an unexpected ‘hard-to-reach’ group); and support in introducing quality systems.
The research found that some projects found it difficult to address both the demand-driven competitiveness agenda and the improvement of the position and status of low-skilled workers.
Notes to editors
The 2000-06 ESF England Objective 3 programme provides £2.9bn. to support domestic labour market programmes and policies. By the end of March 2005, over 1.7 million people had benefited from the support of a wide variety of ESF projects. Most funding is targeted on unemployed and economically inactive people, and some funding is used to support employee development.
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Prepared by: DWP Work, Welfare and Equality directorate