Preston training centre lands contract to help Lancashire job seekers

Julie Torrance, Head of Employment and Training

A Preston training provider has secured a contract to provide qualifications for job seekers across the county.

PHX Training has offices in Preston, Blackpool and Morecambe and has been selected by PeoplePlus to deliver qualifications to help fill job vacancies in Lancashire.

Lancashire job vacancies are at an all-time high time following the pandemic, with the Office for National Statistics reporting that one million job vacancies currently need filling, the highest level since records began.

But job claimant figures in Lancashire suggest around 50,000 people in the county are still unemployed, almost 15,000 higher than before the start of the pandemic.

Fixing the vacancies problem is an issue of changing people’s skills, according to PHX Training’s Head of Employment and Training, Julie Torrance.

Julie said: “The issue isn’t that there aren’t enough people to fill the vacancies but that they need to be reskilled before they can start a career in a different sector.

“People can’t move from being a security guard at a concert to working on a construction site without some basic qualifications.

“Our work with PeoplePlus and Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership will allow us to identify businesses that are struggling to hire and create a plan to run training courses relevant to those jobs so people can gain the qualifications needed to become employable in that sector.

“Once we start to help people into those job roles, we can then also build a training plan for them to continue to upskill and learn on the job by starting apprenticeships, traineeships or further education so that they can make a career of their new role.”

The Skills Support for the Unemployment contract will involve PHX Training working with Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership to identify vacancies and develop a training plan for people currently claiming job-seeking benefits.

The initiative is funded by the European Social Fund, and the support is available to all Lancashire businesses struggling to find relevant employees, as well as anybody unemployed over the age of 16.

Sectors of focus include care workers, hospitality and visitor economy jobs, construction workers, and IT and digital jobs.

PHX Training has training centres in Barrow, Carlisle, Morecambe, Preston and Blackpool.

PHX Training delivers government-backed initiatives, including adult skills, maths, English and vocational courses, NEET (not in education, employment or training), employability contracts and apprenticeships.

For more information, contact PHX Training on 01228 210 317 or visit – www.phxtraining.co.uk

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