Bradford's skill shortage will be helped by up to £4.4 million of Government funding earmarked for the Yorkshire region.

The cash will be made available through the Yorkshire Forward Development Fund to boost skills and training in the region - an increase of a third on last year.

The Government's Skills Development Fund was created to help Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) develop and implement regional skills strategies.

The extra £1.1m available in this year's allocation to the region is aimed to address shortages of key skills in deprived areas around the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Last year, 15 skills development fund projects worth over £3m provided training for more than 1,300 people and advice for 450 businesses.

This year, Yorkshire Forward will operate a competitive bidding round to allocate the majority of resources to up to 20 strategic projects which address key priorities from the Skills Action Plan.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.