The new £5m GMCA Community Grants Programme will fund a number of projects across Greater Manchester. Local Voluntary and community sector (VCSE) organisations and Housing 
Associations can bid for funding up to £100k. This community funding will launch local projects to help disadvantaged, excluded unemployed and economically inactive people to take the next steps towards further education.
Currently, only 8.7% of adults of working age in Greater Manchester who have previously achieved Level 1 or below are using the Adult Education Budget to acquire new skills. As a result, the Essential Life Skills grants will fund fresh and inventive methods to engage with GM residents. Local projected funded will support adults in Greater Manchester into further skills provision. This can be any skills provision (excluding ESOL) that meet local residents' needs.
VCSE, Third Sector, Housing Associations etc. can bid to the Managing Agent, WEA, for up to £100k to deliver projects to support residents furthest away to achieve their skills and employment goals.
Strand 1 – Essential Life Skills
This strand brings together funding from GM Multiply and the GM Devolved Adult Education Budget to enable outreach and engagement activities relating to skills, in particular essential life skills such as maths/numeracy, English (excluding ESOL) and digital (ICT for users).
Strand 2 – Progression towards Inclusive Employment
This strand will be funded via UK Shared Prosperity Fund People and Skills and will offer engagement/re-engagement activity for residents in some of GM’s hardest to reach communities to enable them to progress towards skills and employment.
GMCA’s Adult Skills programme is underpinned by three main objectives:
- Encourage residents to re-engage with skills and training at any point in their lives, no matter what qualifications they have previously attained.
- Supporting residents to acquire a good level of competence in essential life skills such as maths, English and digital literacy.
- Helping residents develop the skills and occupational competence needed to progress further in their learning, work or careers on courses aligned with local employer needs.
Strand 1 – Essential Life Skills
Community grant activity in this space will allow the test and learn opportunity of new and different approaches to engaging with residents, who would benefit the most from skills training but are currently not engaging to identify and overcome the reasons.
- Local Voluntary and community sector (VCSE) organisations and Housing Associations can bid for funding up to £100k.
- The funding requested (per year) should not be more than 50% of your organisation’s average annual income over the previous 3 years (or the combined income of all organisations if a partnership application).
- For partnership applications, we require a single lead organisation and bank account for payments
- This is not a capital fund; maximum spend on capital is £2,000 (maximum £1,000 per item)
Learner Eligibility:
- GM residents with the right to live and work in the UK who are age 16+
- Standard AEB enrolment rules apply
Strand 1 Round 1 – Opens 13 November 2023 for 3 weeks and closes 4 December 2023
Strand 2 round 1 – Opens in January 2024, decisions April, induction April, spending from late April (10 months)
Strands 1 and 2 additional round: Opens April 2024, decisions July, induction July, spending from late July. Must end March 2025 (7 months)
For more information email: [email protected]