Can my business receive funding for workforce training in Northern Ireland?
– Yes. Your business may be eligible for funding through Invest NI. Here’s what you need to know.
| If your business is an Invest NI client based in Belfast or elsewhere in Northern Ireland, two grants can put up to 50% of your English training costs back in your pocket: the Skills Advancement Grant, capped at £15,000 for smaller companies, and Skills for Growth, open to SMEs and large enterprises alike. Here’s how each one works, who qualifies, and how we can help you make the case. |
The condition worth knowing before you start
We get asked about Invest NI funding often enough that it’s worth being upfront about the one condition that catches people out. Both the Skills Advancement Grant and the Skills for Growth programme part of Invest NI are only available to companies that become Invest NI clients.
If you’re not a client yet, that’s the step to sort first, and it’s worth checking Invest NI’s client criteria before building a training plan around either grant.
Skills Advancement Grant: for smaller teams
This is the more accessible of the two grants for smaller employers. It covers external training, travel and accommodation costs at 50%, up to a maximum grant of £15,000. Once approved, the offer runs for 18 months with no option to extend, so it pays to have your training plan ready to go rather than open-ended.
To qualify, alongside being an Invest NI client, your business needs to meet all three of these:
- annual turnover of £10.2 million or less
- balance sheet total of £5.1 million or less
- an average of 50 employees or fewer
These thresholds apply to the Skills Advancement Grant only. They’re not stated as eligibility criteria for Skills for Growth, which is open to SME and large enterprise/FDI clients without that same size cap.
Skills for Growth: the wider programme
Skills for Growth isn’t limited to smaller companies, it’s open to SME and large enterprises. Support is variable, up to a maximum of 50% of eligible costs, and the eligible cost list is broader than the Skills Advancement Grant’s:
- worker wages for time spent on eligible training
- internal trainer costs
- external trainer costs
- travel and accommodation linked to the training
- materials linked specifically to the training
Large enterprise and FDI clients can have support run for up to 60 months, with extensions considered on a case by case basis. As with the Skills Advancement Grant, mandatory, induction, repeat and routine training are excluded.
Three small rules apply across the schemes and are worth knowing before you plan. The two grants cannot run at the same time, so a company chooses one route. VAT is excluded from eligible costs on the Skills Advancement Grant, which also has a minimum spend of £2,000, meaning the smallest grant it pays out is £1,000.
Where in-company English training fits
Both grants are written around training generally, tested against productivity and competitiveness. That’s exactly the ground an English training programme sits on.
When we build a programme for a manufacturing floor, a pharmaceutical site, a logistics team, a customer-facing service desk, or a care team, we’re working from real handovers, real safety briefings, real calls, so the outcome is measurable: fewer errors, faster handovers, more confident staff on the phone or the shop floor.
That fit doesn’t mean automatic approval. Your Client Executive or Business Advisor decides whether a specific programme qualifies, based on your training plan and business case. We can help you put that case together, drawing on what we’ve seen work in other successful training proposals.
| If your people work in logistics, we’ve put together a free guide covering the Top 50 Words for Logistics Teams, the terms that come up most often in warehousing, transport, and distribution. Each of the 50 terms is broken down with a plain-language definition and an example of how to use it in a sentence, giving your team the confidence to use them on the job. |
What the numbers look like
An illustrative example using the published 50 per cent rate. A smaller manufacturer puts 12 production staff through a workplace English programme with an external trainer, at a total eligible cost of £9,600 across the programme. Under the Skills Advancement Grant, the company claims back £4,800, well inside the £15,000 cap and the 18-month window. For larger companies under Skills for Growth, the eligible base is broader because trainee wages for time spent in training can count towards the claim.
Treat both as arithmetic rather than quotes: your figures depend on what Invest NI approves as eligible in your case.
No competitive round to wait for
Some Invest NI programmes run as timed, competitive funding rounds. The Skills Advancement Grant and Skills for Growth work differently. As things stand, there’s no published deadline or funding window to watch for. Access runs through your Invest NI Client Executive, who arranges a visit with a Business Advisor to talk through your plan. That means the right time to raise it is now, in conversation with your Client Executive, not on some future application date.
If you are in the Republic of Ireland
These schemes are Northern Ireland only. Employers in the Republic have separate routes through Skillnet Ireland and other public funding, and our guide to government-funded English training in Ireland covers who qualifies and how to apply.
Working with us on your application
If you’re an Invest NI client thinking about English training for your team, we can help in two ways. We’ll design the programme itself, built around your sector, your shifts and the English your people actually need on the job. And because we know how these grants are assessed, we can help you set out the business case your Client Executive will want to see: who needs the training, what it’s meant to change, and how you’d report on it.
Not sure whether your organisation qualifies? We can help you identify the most suitable funding route before recommending a programme. Get in touch and we’ll walk through it with you.
Frequently Asked Questions About Invest NI Training Funding
1. Do we need to be an Invest NI client before applying?
- Yes. Both schemes are open only to existing Invest NI clients, and businesses owned by Invest NI staff are not eligible. If you are not a client, that is the first step.
2. Can we use the grant for online training?
- The Skills Advancement Grant covers external training costs and the scheme pages do not restrict delivery format. Online delivery also removes the travel and accommodation costs the grant would otherwise part-fund.
3. Does English training count as mandatory training?
- Generally no. Mandatory training is training the law requires you to provide, such as certain statutory safety courses. Workplace English sits in the productivity and skills category the schemes are built for, though your Client Executive makes the final call.
4. How long does approval take?
- Neither scheme publishes a timeline. Speed depends on your Client Executive relationship and how complete your training plan is when you bring it to them, which is where we can help.
