The number of job vacancies across Greater Lincolnshire are at an all-time high, across a whole range of different sectors, occupations, and salary levels.

The Labour Market Support Fund was developed by the LEP to directly address local labour market challenges. 

These challenges include labour market shortages, the impact of Covid-19 and a reduction in migrant labour from the EU.  

The need for specific training requirements and specialised equipment is also impacting on the labour market, and both factors are being supported by this fund. 

The £1.76 million fund was launched in March 2022 and is currently championing five very exciting projects: 

  • The Driver Academy project with Modal will deliver four driver academies over two years, to successfully train participants to become qualified LGV drivers 
  • The Drive 2 Work scheme will enable participants to undertake driver training, medicals, theory and practical tests and wrap around employability support to prepare them for work 
  • The professional Driver Development Programme will provide a steady pipeline of part-qualified professional drivers to fill the vacancies in the LGV and PCV sectors 
  • The World Wide Fruit project proposes to automate the end of production line manual tasks, in order to reduce reliance on an increasingly scarce and unskilled labour pool  
  • The Grantham Engineering Ltd Rotor Shaft Assembly Machining Cell Automation Scheme will enable a process to overcome labour shortage constraints and subsequently create employment and apprenticeship opportunities elsewhere in the organisation