More than £1.5m passed between businesses via ‘secret’ training fund

One takeaway from National Apprenticeships Week is that funding remains a major issue. Then we heard about 'secret' system channelling £100,000s into Gloucestershire to help overcome just that!

Dear readers,

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal. Before you think we’ve uncovered some kind of illegal money laundering scheme in the county, we’ve not.

But it is a scheme that is allowing vast sums of money to be kept from the clutches of Government and diverted to county firms by some of our most savvy employers.

Word is spreading about it, but it’s spreading slowly. In a nation where we’ve just learned that employment prospects for young people have been particularly bleak of late, every little bit helps.

We have Alan Mulrooney, of Gloucestershire College, to thank for tipping us the wink on today’s lead.

And we’ll repeat what we said on Friday, that we are looking for new partners to help support The Raikes Journal. Not that the old ones are leaving, but this is the time of year when we need to build those commercial relationships for the year ahead.

Full Founding Partner status gets you quite a lot of editorial support, but there are other options.

If you want to come on…