£5.75m tech fund to tackle unemployment

A new fund has been launched to support charities that are helping to reskill people whose industries have been affected by automation.

Set up by innovation funder Nesta and the Department for Education, the fund, worth £5.75million, is made up of two strands: the CareerTech Challenge Prize, for solutions that use labour market information to make advice and guidance more accessible; and the Career Tech Challenge Fund, which is offering grants to organisations with tech solutions that can help people build their employability skills and confidence.

The Prize has a top award of £120,000, runner-up award of £80,000 and a further £50,000 to 20 finalists. The Fund will give grants of between £100,000 and £250,000. Nesta will also provide support to help refine and test the technology.

These funds form part of the Government’s new National Retraining Scheme.

Applications for the Fund close on 9 December 2019. Click here to apply

Entries for the Prize close on 29 January 2020. Click here to enter.