Want to know more about our support?
Develop your staff skills
Increase skills in your business to power ahead in the future.
The more skilled your staff are the more likely your business will succeed, grow and be profitable. But you need to invest effectively both in terms of time and cost of your staff’s training. Our Skills Development portfolio will help you identify training needs and improve employee skills, motivation and willingness of staff to provide feedback.
We will introduce you to training needs best practice so you can develop the skills and abilities of your staff. This will give you the competitive edge you need to thrive. Here is some of the support we offer.
Training Needs Analysis workshops
These workshops are open to all businesses and are held at various locations across Northern Ireland. These workshops are free to attend. There are two different half-day workshops:
- Training Needs Analysis workshops offers advice on identifying the training needs of an organisation
Register for a Training Needs Analysis workshop - Training Needs to Training Plan workshops offers advice on how to develop, cost and manage an effective training plan
Register for a Training Needs to Training Plan workshop
Skills Adviser Support
One of our experienced Skills Advisers can provide 1:1 support for companies to assist them in identifying training needs and help develop a plan to address these needs. This service is available to Invest NI customers and is free.
Skills Advancement Grant
The Skills Advancement Grant is available to smaller companies who are already customers of Invest NI. Support is available for external training, travel and accommodation costs at 50% grant up to a maximum of £15,000 grant. The grant is available for 18 months only with no option to extend the offer. It does not cover mandatory training and VAT is excluded.
The minimum training expenditure supported is £2k (£1k grant). Please note that multiple Skills Advancement Grants cannot operate simultaneously for the same company or in conjunction with Skills for Growth projects.
Skills for Growth for SMEs
We will help you improve your skills so your company grows. We offer financial support for training activities to Invest NI customers who are SMEs.
The scheme supports trainee wages, internal trainer, external trainer and travel and accommodation costs. Grant support is variable up to a maximum of 50% of eligible costs. Mandatory training, induction training and repeat training are not eligible and VAT is excluded.
This support is available for a period up to 24 months although extensions can be sought on a case-by-case basis. Trainee wage costs cannot exceed the costs of all other eligible costs.
Skills Growth for Large Enterprises and or Foreign Direct Investors (FDI)
This is available to Invest NI customers who are large enterprises and or FDI. The scheme supports trainee wages, internal trainer, external trainer and travel and accommodation costs. Grant support is variable up to a maximum of 50% of eligible costs.
Mandatory training, induction training and repeat training are not eligible and VAT is excluded. This support is available for a period up to 60 months although extensions can be sought on a case-by-case basis. Trainee wage costs cannot exceed the costs of all other eligible costs.
Discover more
Hear how our skills development programme has led businesses on a path to improved skills.