SkillsActive and ukactive have launched a survey to determine what employers want for training solutions, in order to guide bids for a government scheme to invest £340m in skills training and career development.

Applications for the Employer Ownership of Skills Pilot – overseen by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education – close 28 March, and interest needs to be registered by 11 March.

The programme is open to employers of all sizes and sectors within England, but bids from groups of employers working together in their sector, supply chain or locality will be viewed favourably.

SkillsActive and ukactive will collate feedback from the online survey and develop options or themes that employers can partner underneath in order to make bids.

Chief executive of ukactive David Stalker said “There are no rules to this fund, you are not constricted by a set of available qualifications or training programmes, rather as long as we can demonstrate that our suggested solutions will solve a skills gap and improve performance then we have a chance of success.”

UKCES has outlined apprenticeships, work experience, paid internships, job trials, pre-employment skills training and mentoring as themes it would like to explore for the programme.