Manchester Work Club Funding Programme April 2023 - March 2024

Manchester’s Work and Skills Strategy is a strategy for the city. It sets out how Manchester City Council will use learning and employment to meet the Our Manchester Strategy vision of being a more highly skilled city, and how Manchester City Council will help create a more inclusive and zero-carbon economy in Manchester where more residents are connected to the city’s success

The final and published Work and Skills Strategy 2022-27 can be found here: Manchester Work and Skills Strategy | Manchester City Council

Manchester City Council recognises the important role Work Clubs play in providing flexible and informal employment support to workless Manchester residents.  

In recognition of the valuable role they play in delivering employment support services, Manchester City Council has made available grant funding for Manchester Work Clubs to apply for.

The aim of Manchester Work Club Grant Funding is to contribute to Manchester City Council’s priority of increasing the number of Manchester residents who are working. It will:

• Provide an opportunity for established Work Clubs in Manchester to undertake initiatives, short projects or increase resources to improve outcomes for their clients. Specifically, this funding is to undertake activities that will improve the quality and quantity of services provided to Work Club service users.
• To increase the number of residents who access support.

In 2023/24, Manchester City Council has put an emphasis on the connection between Work Clubs and Adult Education Budget, including referrals into learning opportunities and enhancing the number of courses delivered across the community.

Priorities of grants   
The Work and Skills Team are looking to fund work club settings that:

• Have strong links and partnerships/work collaboratively with other employment support providers, such as other Work Clubs, programmes such as Working Well, Restart and Employers
• Work with partners who are delivering skills support activities (such as MAES, The Manchester College and Libraries) and refer to this.
• Use the Our Manchester Approach to support and signpost residents with a wider range of issues surrounding work, i.e. housing, emotional support, mental health
• New for 2023 – Have an ability to connect with Adult Education Budget training providers, to make referrals and host training opportunities within the Work Club (or surrounding community).

Successful applicants will be expected to promote their work club offer widely and regularly and attend and participate in area focused Employment and Skills Support networks and groups.  

The value of this Manchester Work Club Grant Funding programme is 172,500 in total. Applicants can apply for a maximum of £10,000 to be spent over a 1-year period. The programme will run from April 2023 to 31st March 2024.

To be eligible to apply, organisations must be:

• Not-for-profit: voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises, co-operatives and mutual societies, Community Interest Companies, charities i.e. non-governmental organisations which are value driven and which principally invest their surpluses to further social, environmental or cultural objectives
• Based in the City of Manchester and currently delivering Work Club activity to Manchester residents

Priority will be given to work clubs supporting those living in the most disadvantaged areas.

The prospectus, application form and application guidance can be downloaded below. Completed applications should be emailed to: [email protected]

Deadline: 13 March 2023, 10am