Skills Support for the Workforce

Skills Support for Redundancy

Funded, tailored training to support individuals and businesses

Skills Support for Redundancy was an initiative designed to support employers and individuals affected by redundancy. The initiative was a tailored service to meet the needs of individuals and businesses, and offered a wide range of training support. A dedicated Partnership Coordinator worked with individuals and businesses to identify the best sources of support and training to help to achieve future career goals and getting back to work. 

This service was delivered by Serco and co-financed by the Education & Skills Funding Agency and European Social Fund.

About the Programme


How we can support you

For Employers

If you are facing an organisational restructure or the prospect of making hard decisions about staff redundancy, there is funded support available to you. 

The SSR programme will ensure that your employees get access to bespoke training and careers guidance, and support them to find suitable employment. 

For Individuals 

Are you facing redundancy, or have you been made redundant within the last three months? 

The SSR programme provides you with access to funded skills training, retraining and careers guidance to help you get back into employment. 


What was on Offer?

We offered a range of skills training, qualifications and networking opportunities to support workplace success, including:

·        Employability Skills, 

·        Functional Skills, 

·        Upskilling for Workplace Success,

·        Career Progression training.

Upskill for workplace success:

Serco provided training and advice in a wide range of vocational and sector specific skills to help individuals secure employment in existing businesses or change career. Training also included support with English, Maths and Digital Literacy as required to help individuals thrive in new workplaces or roles.

Career progression training:

A higher-level skills offer was developed to help individuals to take the next step in their career, such as leadership and management or supervisory skills training.

Support with securing a new job:

To give individuals the best chance of securing a new role, we built on transferable skills and provided support where required with CV writing, online job searching, completing applications and interview techniques, and signposting to local services that were able to offer additional support. 

For organisations with 20+ employees at risk of redundancy, we worked with the Department for Work and Pensions, Local Enterprise Partnership and the National Careers Service to provide the best possible support.

Eligibility Criteria:

Individuals taking up funded training through Skills Support for Redundancy had to satisfy the following criteria:

  • A legal resident of the UK
  • Able to take paid employment in the UK
  • Employed and at risk of redundancy, or
  • Unemployed due to redundancy within the last 3 months 
  • Aged 16 or above