What we do

Overview

The National Employer Service (NES) provides impartial, specialist advice on workforce development (including Apprenticeships, Train to Gain and Skills for Life) to national, multi-site employers with more than 5000 employees, supported by a range of funding options.

NES was created to put skills and training at the top of the corporate agenda. We don’t dictate fixed measures to employers. Instead we challenge them on the scale and effectiveness of their training, we connect and enable them to share best practice and we co-invest in the cost of achieving real results.

We work on behalf of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, and in tandem with the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS)

NES helps employers to understand, develop and co-invest in large scale, highly cost-effective embedded training programmes by enabling them to procure, promote and deliver the training they need in the way that works best for their businesses.

Our approach to funding is one of shared contribution, with government and employers co-investing in the frontline training that creates economically valuable skills. This means channeling any public investment to areas where it delivers the greatest value for money and catalyses the skilled jobs that will be needed in the British economy of the future. NES companies closely measure the return on this joint public-private investment.

Our service gives employers personalised account management through a single point of contact. This makes navigating the policy environment and interacting with the many partners in the skills system as straightforward as possible. We actively help companies make things simpler through measures to reduce bureaucracy and paperwork.

NES companies are a vital network of the country’s top employers who understand that investing in the skills of their people improves productivity and competitiveness.