ELISA Cornwall

With an economic base comprising 93% micro and small companies, and only 8% employing apprentices, it was clear Cornwall needed an additional approach to skills solutions for small businesses. The ELISA project aimed to address these needs.

The ELISA project achieved this through the creation of a specialist skills brokerage capacity, focusing on 10 economically vital sectors to provide expert skills advice to 3,600 businesses, resulting in 1,400 individual company training plans. Elisa Cornwall also empowered CMN to launch the Cornwall Apprenticeship Agency to reduce the risk involved with taking on an apprentice, and the Agency created 650 new apprenticeship vacancies through the project.

The project’s success was due largely to CMN’s existing model of business support, which included a specialist skills brokerage team to help employers identify their current and emerging skills needs and support them to find solutions. This model was developed on a larger scale across key sectors with high numbers of SME’s, including digital, creative, food & drink, bio-medical, sustainable construction, manufacturing & engineering and tourism.

The ELISA project was run in partnership with the Digital Peninsular Network, Eden Project, Cornwall Sustainable Buildings Trust, Cornwall Agri-Food Council and Cornwall Council. ELISA was funded by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.