Objective 3

Objective 3 (2000-2006)

Objective 3 aims to support organisations - including the community and voluntary sector, local authorities, training bodies and private sector organisations - by funding projects which assist local people into jobs or training. This might include projects which provide advice and guidance, work experience, vocational, key and basic skills support, improve the quality and flexibility of local training or promote SME employee development.

All projects must be aimed at developing people's skills, and training them so that they are better equipped to get a job or are able to move on in the work place or into further education. In general, the funding has been used to assist specific groups, such as young and long-term unemployed people, lone parents, ethnic minorities, women returners, ex-offenders, people with disabilities, and people over 50.

The current programme has 5 different policy fields: 

• Active labour market policies - helping local people into work; 
  
• Equal opportunities for all and promoting social inclusion; 
  
• Lifelong Learning - encouraging local people to access lifelong learning opportunities; 
  
• Adaptability and Entrepreneurship - supporting SME employees and SMEs to adapt to change and innovate, with a particular emphasis on those with outdated or outmoded skills; 
  
• Improving the position of women in the labour market.

Examples of current Sunderland-based projects include: · Building Ethnic Childcare: This project aims to provide childcare-focused training for Bangladeshi women. The training will focus on confidence-building, basic and IT skills, and enable Bangladeshi women to gain formal qualifications in childcare, crèche or nursery class support. It is anticipated that childcare provision locally will be improved and that some beneficiaries will join the childcare sector in an employed capacity.

• Access to Learning: raising local capacity in the coalfields area of the city by providing a range of learning opportunities linked to community development activities. The project targets those groups most disadvantaged in the labour market, and aims to widen participation and involve local people in the development of community learning facilities in Houghton and Easington Lane.
• Job Linkage: This project seeks to extend the delivery of the successful Job Linkage initiative across the city through specific support to improve the target group's employability. The project will work with neighbourhood centres to deliver more intensive customised advice and guidance to get local people back into work or training.
• First Steps to Learning: This project is aimed at progressing women into learning opportunities, vocational training and pathways to employment. All elements of the project aim to empower women facing barriers to employment, enhancing confidence and self-esteem and improving their personal effectiveness and range of skills.

2007 - 2013

A new Competitiveness and Employment Programme (also known as Objective 2) will provide support for some of these activities.  

Alternatively, you could visit the Government Office North East web site  for information on the latest bidding rounds and application procedure.

Contact us for more information

Return to Sunderland in Europe