The individual colleges are offering various support packages to individuals and sectors - which include financial services workers from large and small companies alike. These are designed to either refresh existing skills or enable people to retrain for a new career path.
Funded by regional development agencies and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the packages on offer cover a range of vocational training and skills development, including courses on IT, management training, retail and security, as well as general advice such as CV and presentation skills.
The various schemes are also designed to help individuals return to the labour market as soon as possible. All training is designed to be bespoke to the needs of individual companies or individual staff and is taking place either at the workplace or at one of the participating NSAFS training providers.
Sylvia Perrins, CEO of the NSAFS commented: "We all know that the country is in recession and it's a tough time for many people. These initiatives are providing vital services to help and support workers get back on their feet. The financial services sector is just one area that has seen many thousands of people lose their jobs and it is great to see the colleges responding to these needs and other sectors which are important to their local economy.
"Should people be faced with redundancy, we will look at the best training options open to them and will be able to provide access to training including professionally-accredited courses and apprenticeship programmes with employers from across the financial services sector. Whilst no-one who needs help will be turned away, we obviously hope that they won't lose their jobs in the first place."
