Stand by for the new training brokerage which could revolutionise business in York and North Yorkshire, says David Harbourne, director of the Learning and Skills Council North Yorkshire.

It is often said that people are the lifeblood of any business - but how easy is it to improve their skills and knowledge to meet future needs?

Training and development offers enormous potential for employers from every sector and discipline. The equation is simple. If you invest in your people, you will reap dividends with improved recruitment and retention, more productive and more motivated staff and a real impact on the bottom line.

For many small businesses, an understandable challenge is how to combine the immediate day-to-day demands of the business with the need to plan and train for the future. Part of the challenge is to find the right training provider - one who is willing and able to meet the needs of the business in the right way, at the right time, and at the right price.

This is where our new Brokerage Scheme comes in. Over the next 18 months, the scheme - which is partly funded by Yorkshire Forward - will create a team of specialist development consultants whose role will be to build links with employers. The consultants, to be known as brokers, will work with employers to identify training and development needs within their businesses. The second stage will be to translate the findings into action by helping to develop practical and deliverable training programmes to meet those needs.

Brokers will encourage employers to make the most of the in-house knowledge and skills that they already have and also introduce them to the many training opportunities that currently exist and can be accessed with relative ease. Where specialist and bespoke training is required that, too, will be sourced.

Each broker will be working within a particular business cluster or sector and they have been recruited precisely because of their specialist knowledge and expertise within that sector. This track record of working in a particular business sector is extremely important - it means brokers will speak the same language as the business leaders they are there to help.

For further information phone Katherine Humphries on 01904 385516 or, for a copy of the Cluster and Sector Prospectus visit our website: www.lsc.gov.uk/northyorkshire

Updated: 09:23 Tuesday, November 25, 2003