Employer Ownership Engineering project funds are for employers and will be open to any company which directly employs people in engineering occupations, where company growth and development is being held up by skills gaps or skills shortages in engineering. The focus will be on skills training outcomes that are additional to an employer’s current activity. Training should target employees from skilled operators through to associate professionals and those on pathways through to professional status. These skills equate with Levels 2-6 of the Qualifications and Credit Framework.

Engineering project funds should be used for:
• Career Progression - enabling those currently in engineering occupations to move forward in their careers or
• Conversion training allowing people to transfer from other occupations into engineering to fill skills gaps and to increase the talent pipeline.

You (the applicant / company) should choose what sort of training best meets these objectives. Training activity could focus on:
•career progression training for associate professionals, technicians and skilled operatives to adapt to changing technologies or new business processes; or
•employers re-skilling, or recruiting people with allied qualifications or skills to enter into, or return to, engineering;
• supporting mid-career returners to come back to, or into engineering occupations;
• pathways into Technician or engineering professions. This could include opportunities for employees to achieve chartered status.

There are, however, limitations on the sort of training that this fund can support. Funding of 1st and post-graduate degrees, apprenticeships and traineeships programmes, where funding can be obtained through existing funding channels, will not be in scope.

Further details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321047/guidance-for-applicants-improving-engineer-careers.pdf  

Please do get in touch if you feel there are ways in which the Engineering Council could work with you.