Businesses in West Northamptonshire can now have 90% of the cost of AI and leadership training for their teams paid for by the Government.
Training provider Mastered has £180,000 of Skills Bootcamp funding to allocate to employers in the area. The programmes cover AI readiness, leadership and digital skills, and are open to companies based in Northampton, Daventry, Towcester, Brackley and the surrounding towns and villages.
For business with up to 250 staff the training is 90% funded, making you eligible for at least £25,000 of government funding if they can put a cohort of seven people together.
Each programme is bespoke to the business taking part and led by industry professionals. Mastered starts by working with the employer to identify the challenges that training could help with, then designs a 64-hour pathway around that goal. Sessions are live and taught in small groups, with one-to-one coaching or mentoring alongside. Mastered handles enrolment and the funding paperwork.
The AI programme covers which tools are worth using, how to use them safely with company and client data, and how to build them into everyday work. The leadership programme is for founders, senior leaders, people managers, new managers and includes one-to-one coaching.
Tim Fleming, Industry Partnerships Manager at Mastered, said: “I met a lot of local business owners at the Northamptonshire Business Exhibition in September, and the same two things kept coming up. They know their teams need to get to grips with AI, and they have managers who were promoted for being good at the job and have never had any leadership training.
“Most of them had no idea the Government would pay for 90% of it. The funding has already been allocated to West Northamptonshire, so it is there to be used by local employers.”
Mastered has trained more than 7,000 people since 2015 and is rated 4.7 stars on Trustpilot. Employers it has worked with include DCTR Group, which works in design and technology for the property sector, the charity Autism Plus and creative agency Shaped By as well as groups like LVMH and WPP
Megan Kelly, Head of People at Strativ Group, which put a team through the AI programme, said: “From just a few weeks into the programme, our attendees were already applying their new skills in their day-to-day roles.” She added that each participant “moved from a self-assessed skill level of 1-2 out of 5 to 4-5”.
The funding is specific to the West Northamptonshire Council area and is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.
West Northamptonshire employers can check whether they are eligible by booking a 15-minute call with Tim Fleming or by emailing tim@mastered.com.
