Assured Skills Academies
When a company is interested in creating jobs in Northern Ireland, Assured Skills Academies can provide the necessary support to deliver a skilled workforce through the delivery of short pre-employment training courses.
What are Assured Skills Academies?
Assured Skills Academies are short, demand led pre-employment training courses, fully funded by the Department for the Economy and developed in partnership with InvestNI. These courses are designed in collaboration with industry and delivered by NI FE colleges and Higher Education Institutions to upskill individuals to help them compete for job vacancies in new foreign direct investment companies and expanding local businesses
How do Assured Skills Academies work?
Where a company or consortium of companies have an identified skills need, DfE will consider developing a short-term pre-employment training intervention or “Assured Skills academy” to meet that need.
Assured Skills Academies typically involve a six to eight week pre-employment training course, designed and delivered by a local Further Education college or university to upskill individuals to meet the skills needed for current job vacancies.
This approach is versatile and flexible and has been used to help companies recruit staff in sectors such as;
- IT
- Professional Services
- Financial Services
- Manufacturing
How Assured Skills Academies can help your company
Some of the benefits include;
- The provision of a pre-employment training course designed with you and delivered by a local college or university to meet your company’s skills need
- Support to recruit and select the best candidates to participate on the academy
- Opportunity to interview all candidates who successfully complete the academy for job vacancies in your organisation
- All pre-employment training costs fully funded by the DfE
How Assured Skills Academies benefit individuals
If you are unemployed, under-employed, an 18 year old school leaver, a graduate or have experience and would like to change direction in your career then Assured Skills Academies may be what you are looking for.
Successfully completing an Assured Skills academy will give you the skills and knowledge that employers want. Previous participants have secured roles in diverse areas such as Professional Services, IT, FinTech and Manufacturing.
Previous participants have this to say about Assured Skills Academies:
“Assured Skills has given me (at 55) a chance of a whole new career and life. I now work in a company that values me and I feel has invested in me and wants me to succeed and this all stems from the Assured Skills Academy. I would recommend the Academy to everyone, whole-heartedly”
“Participating in the Assured Skills Academy really did change my life”
“I would absolutely recommend the Assured Skills Academy to anyone that is thinking of a career change. It is a fast-track way to enter an industry you might otherwise think is out of reach with no expensive university debt at the end of it. You will gain first hand industry experience and learn very much on the job.
If you are thinking about it, go for it!”
Who can apply?
- Applicants must be at least 18 years old.
- Applicants must have a right to work and undertake training in the UK at the point of application and must not be disqualified from doing either by reason of their immigration status. Proof of this will be required to progress to interview.
- Individual academies may have enhanced eligibility criteria. Details can be found within the academy application form.
Interested?
If you think Assured Skills Academies might benefit you or you just want to find out more please contact the Assured Skills Team;
Current Opportunities
Current academies are advertised online, using resources such as JobApplyNI, NIDirect, NIJobs, NIJobfinder and social media.
Find out more here;
Privacy Notice
If you wish to find out how we use the personal information you supply for an Assured Skills academy see our privacy notice: