A NORTH East university has been given a £1m grant by the Government to support its work with employers in delivering higher education to people already in work.

Teesside University received the highest single amount available to an institution, from the Transition Fund of the Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

The HEFCE transition fund is available only to higher education institutions which have made ‘workforce development’ and wider business engagement central to their strategy. The fund is supporting a handful of universities who are committed to continuing to support businesses and regional economic growth.

Business secretary Vince Cable described Teesside as “one of the best universities for business in Britain” and it has won many plaudits for its work with the business community.

This cash injection will allow Teesside to grow business operations even further, responding to the needs of business and industry within their own regional economies. In particular it will also be able to expand support to small and medium enterprises.

Vice chancellor Professor Graham Henderson said: “Our successful application was very much linked to the success of the university’s strategy, working over the past three years, to deliver university provision to over 8,000 employees through workforce development programmes tailored directly to the needs of individual employers to improve performance.

“In order to make this happen, we have developed a highly responsive infrastructure which positions us well to sustain this activity in the future.”