ECIF Project

The Economic Challenge Investment Fund (ECIF) was launched last year by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to respond rapidly to the needs of employers and individuals during the economic downturn. The ECIF project helps individuals by providing additional support to that offered by Job Centre Plus and Nextstep. This includes Individual Advice and Guidance (IAG), career management packages and learning and development opportunities.

The project runs to September 2010 and aims to benefit 1000 individuals including Senior Managers, Middle Managers, experienced employees, unemployed recent graduates and sole traders or self-employed across West Yorkshire. This funding provides a unique opportunity for HE providers to work more closely with other agencies to offer real help to people during and after the economic downturn. The individuals will benefit by having new opportunities to develop higher level skills or to find new ways of using existing skills more effectively. This will help them to become more employable during the downturn and into recovery.

The WYLLN partners involved in this project are: University of Huddersfield, University of Leeds, University of Bradford, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds Trinity & All Saints, Leeds City College, Leeds College of Building, Joseph Priestley College, Bradford College, Calderdale College and Wakefield College.

The Bradford ECIF "Offer" consists of 3 elements:

Element 1 - Initial advisory interview/1:1 guidance; Access to initial specialist information resources; Access to labour market and recruitment databases

Element 2 - Supported access to web based/ICT based career packages; psychometric testing; job search strategies, e.g. networking, presentation skills; executive CV

This suite of options enables Careers staff to tailor a support package suitable for each client - only the bits relevant to the individual need to be used.

Element 3 - Learning and Development programmes

For individuals who would benefit from further learning we are able to fund programmes of between 30 and 120 credits which must be completed by 30 Sept 2010. These can be courses/modules available anywhere in the University which meet the clients employability needs. It may be that entrepreneurial activity such as Amaze Yourself or Think Business  would be useful. In this case clients may not require ECIF funding but we would point them in the right direction for this activity.