Home / Jobs / Get Into Work / Employment Support Programmes / Skill Up

Skill Up

Employment Support Programme

The Flexible Skills Programme

If you’re aged 18 and over and eligible to work in Northern Ireland, a range of free accredited courses are available to help you re-train and re-skill, through SKILL UP – the flexible skills programme.

The Department for the Economy, with funding from the Northern Ireland Office and the Department of Finance, is supporting free short courses, delivered by the local further and higher education providers.

There are up to 7000 free places available until end of March 2024.

Opportunities are available from entry to postgraduate levels, focussing on skills identified by industry, linked to priority economic sectors, including:

digital skills
green technologies
healthcare and life sciences
advanced manufacturing
leadership and management

Most courses will be delivered online and will provide an opportunity to re-skill and upskill into areas where job growth is expected to be high as we emerge from the impact of coronavirus.

Visit Website

Find out what other Employment Support Programmes are available.

Labour Market Partnership

Funded by the Department for Communities, Department for the Economy and supported by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Antrim and Newtownabbey Labour Market Partnership will deliver a range of programmes to help our residents gain the work-ready skills, experience or qualifications needed to move into employment or to move into a better job. View our action plan here.

This information has been provided by the Labour Market Partnership (LMP)

LMPs)have been established across the Councils in Northern Ireland to help improve employability outcomes and labour market conditions locally. It is hoped that by working through multi-agency partnerships we will be able to achieve regional objectives whilst being flexible to meet local needs.

The LMP approach has been introduced by DFC to ensure employability delivery is reflective of the needs of local employers and residents.

LMPs will play a role in supporting ‘Employability NI’, which is DfC’s regional approach to supporting those who are unemployed to get back to.

Employability NI is designed to provide a range of interventions to:

Deliver a reduction in economic inactivity and long-term unemployment;
Provide increased support for those with physical/mental health conditions and disabilities; and
Implement an intervention that provides a collaborative nature between Central Government Departments and Local Council area to offer direct and unique interventions. Hence LMP’s

The ultimate aim of the partnership will be to get more of our residents into better jobs.