Stormont Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has announced a £15m scheme by Invest NI, to help businesses currently in difficulty to retain key skills.

The Short Term Aid Scheme, aimed at those in the manufacturing and tradable services sectors, will offer up to £450,000 to help firms retain key staff while they plan and restructure for the future.

To be eligible, a firm in difficulty will need to demonstrate a need for support and the actions already taken, or proposed to take, to address its difficulties.

Ms Foster said: "Eligible businesses that are experiencing short term difficulties will be able to obtain grants for salaries to maintain key skilled posts in their workforce. These will be at a rate of 80% for small companies, 70% for medium sized enterprises and 60% for large companies.

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"The support will allow businesses to undertake a range of approved activities, including Further and Higher Education training, in-house upskilling, in-house infrastructure improvements or introducing improved management or financial control systems."

She continued: "This new scheme will provide crucial and invaluable support to businesses which may otherwise have to make key employees redundant, resulting in valuable skills and knowledge being lost and therefore, not readily available when economic recovery occurs."

Commencing next month, the scheme is available to eligible large companies and SMEs in the manufacturing and tradable service sectors which were not in difficulty prior to July 2008 and which, although fundamentally viable, are experiencing short term difficulties.

Ms Foster said the initiative is "over and above" what the Government and the Executive have already established.

(PR/JM)