Information communicated by Member States regarding State aid granted under Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to training aid

(2003/C 197/04)

(Text with EEA relevance)

Aid No: XT 61/02

Member State: United Kingdom

Region: West Midlands Objective 2 Region

Title of aid or name of company receiving an individual aid: Birmingham and Solihull Learning Skills Council Creative Industries Training (Obj2/02/1/1.4, Obj2/02/2/1.5 and Obj2/02/3/1.6)

Legal basis: Employment Act 1973, Sections 2(1) and 2(2), as substantiated by Section 25 of the Employment and Training Act 1998; Learning Skills Act 2000

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: Total public expenditure GBP 1000000:

2002: GBP 500000

2003: GBP 500000

Maximum aid intensity: 75 % for SMEs in this Article 87(3)(c) region. This aid will support 425 companies. No SME will receive more than GBP 125000

Date of implementation: 1 September 2002

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: 31 December 2003

Objective of aid: To give general training in order to improve the skills of the individuals and thereby improve the general economic productivity of the assisted area.

Training supported under this programme will be general training to accredited national standards such as NVQ and will be transferable between economic sectors

Economic sector(s) concerned: Other services: creative industries, without prejudice to the regulations on sensitive sectors

Name and address of the granting authority: Mike Ryan, Skills Sector Coordinator ( tel. (44-121) 345 46 21 ) or Karen Brown ( tel. (44-121) 345 45 11 ) Birmingham and Solihull LSC Chaplin Court

80 Hurst Street

Birmingham B5 4TG United Kingdom

Other information: The organization involved in delivering the training in this project are colleges, which are funded by the public sector and act as a conduit of funds to SMEs. The only exception to this is for core skills, which are delivered by both colleges and private training providers who have won a competitive tender to carry out this project

Aid No: XT 66/02

Member State: United Kingdom

Region: West Midlands Objective 2

Title of aid or name of company receiving an individual aid: Black Country Learning Network Training - (Objective 2/O2/1/1.04.1.05.1.06)

Legal basis: Employment Act 1973, Sections 2(1) and 2(2), as substantiated by Section 25 of the Employment and Training Act 1998 and the Industrial Development 1982, Section 11; Learning and Skills Council Act 2000

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: Annual expenditure

2002/03: GBP 875000

2003/04: GBP 1180155

2004/05: GBP 1107951

2005/06: GBP 1112134

2006/07: GBP 1109709

2007/08: GBP 1114127

2008/09: GBP 1118665

Total: GBP 7618341

No one company will receive more than EUR 1000000 or more than the ceiling stipulated in the regulations in force at the time

Maximum aid intensity: Maximum 75 % for aid for general training granted only to SMEs in Article 87(3)(c) areas

Date of implementation: 1 August 2002

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: 1 August 2002 to 30 June 2007 in accordance with the current regulation. The scheme will subsequently comply with the regulations in force at the time

Objective of aid: To support general training - the purpose of the training is to improve the skills base of the employees in the old manufacturing sector in order to provide them with transferable skills. This will safeguard the jobs of the employees in this area. This will be done by conducting a training needs analysis and delivering a programme of general training which meets the needs identified.

The training will be general training and will be NVQ or equivalent in the case of basic and vocational skills and will be Institute of Directors or MBAs in the case of the management development

Economic Sector(s) concerned: All manufacturing

Name and address of the granting authority: Jaine Clarke Black Country Learning and Skills Council Black Country House

Rounds Green Road

Oldbury West Midlands B69 2DG United Kingdom Tel. (44-121) 345 47 90

Aid No: XT 67/02

Member State: United Kingdom

Region: West Midlands

Title of aid or name of company receiving an individual aid: Ceramic Workforce Development in Staffordshire

Legal basis: Employment Act 1973, Sections 2(1) and 2(2), as substantiated by Section 25 of the Employment and Training Act 1998 and the Industrial Development Act 1982, Section 11

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: 2002/03: GBP 1041587

2003/04: GBP 258912

Total public funds: GBP 1300499

Maximum aid intensity: General training:

Large company

- Assisted status

General training: maximum 55 %

- Non-assisted status

General training: maximum 50 %

Medium-sized/small company

- Assisted status

General training: maximum 75 %

- Non-assisted status

General training: maximum 70 %

Assisted status under Article 87(3)(c).

No one company will receive more than GBP 100000

Date of implementation: 2 August 2002

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: 31 March 2005

Objective of aid: The purpose of the project is to use general training to retrain workers in the ceramics industry in a variety of nationally recognised transferable skills in order to enable them to obtain relevant modern skills so as to diversify into better-paid jobs within the industry or to obtain skilled employment in other industries.

The scheme also aims to support the upskilling of workers, in particular the delivery of highly skilled specialist crafts that cannot be obtained through the normal training provider routes.

Staffordshire is an area heavily affected by the decline in the ceramics industry. Large numbers of people have worked only in low-skilled jobs in that industry without qualifications since leaving school.

The general training will be both NVQ and nationally accredited by the Ceramic Trade Union

Economic Sector(s) concerned: Other manufacturing: ceramic industry and supply chain

Name and address of the granting authority: SDF and ESF element: Department for Education and Skills Sanctuary Buildings

Great Smith Street

London SW1 P3BP United Kingdom

ESF and RRF element: Department for Work and Pensions Richmond House 79 Whitehall London SW1A 2NS United Kingdom

Other information: Contact: John Day 2nd Floor, 2 Market Square Hanley, Stoke on Trent Staffordshire ST1 1NU United Kingdom Tel. (44-1782) 26 67 75

The managing organisation is the Ceramic Trade Union, which is acting as a conduit to help individual workers and is not a recipient of the funding. Training is delivered via external training providers (colleges, and competitively selected training schools, industry specialists, etc.)

Aid No: XT 68/02

Member State: United Kingdom

Region: West Midlands Objective 2

Title of aid or name of company receiving an individual aid: Tamworth Automotive and Engineering Training Support Project 2002 to 2005

Legal basis: Employment Act 1973, Sections 2(1) and 2(2), as substantiated by Section 25 of the Employment and Training Act 1998.

Under this legislation and the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, an incorporated further education college is allowed to assist SMEs

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: 2002: GBP 276428

2003: GBP 451656

2004: GBP 1622456

2005: GBP 2268682

Total: GBP 4619222

Maximum aid intensity: The maximum aid intensity will be 70 % for SMEs and 50 % for large companies.

Actual expenditure varies but will not exceed GBP 100000 for any one company

Date of implementation: 2 September 2002

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: 31 December 2005

Objective of aid: The objective of this scheme is to provide general training to staff within SMEs and large companies in the automotive and engineering sectors. These sectors have been identified in the Regional Economic Strategy and are bedrock sectors which would bring the greatest improvement to the region from diversification and changed techniques. This has been confirmed in the structural SPD approved by the Commission.

The training will enable employees in these sectors to improve transferable skills, resulting in the improved competitiveness of the tier-two automotive SMEs and engineering companies.

The training will be modules towards accredited training such as NVQs

Economic Sector(s) concerned: Manufacturing: Tier-two suppliers in the automotive and engineering sectors, without prejudice to the regulations on sensitive sectors

Name and address of the granting authority: Governmental Office for West Midlands 77 Paradise Circus

Queensway

Birmingham B1 2DT United Kingdom

Other information: The delivery agents of the project are Tamworth and Lichfield College;

Contact Officer: Rupert Herd, Principal and Chief Executive Tamworth and Lichfield College Croft Street, Upper Gungate Tamworth Staffordshire B79 8AE United Kingdom Tel. (44-1827) 30 43 38