LYME REGIS: Good news is in store for the Lyme Regis Development Trust after it was awarded £50,000 over two years to continue teaching through LymeNet.

Earlier in the year, ‘Bournemouth Poole and Dorset Skills and Learning’ changed its contracts, preventing LymeNet from bidding and effectively preventing all new learners from enrolling at LymeNet unless they could fully fund their courses.

This was a major problem in that all people needing funded ‘skills for work’ courses would have to travel to Dorchester or Weymouth.

Fortunately, a bid to Lloyds Bank Foundation has reversed this situation, said new chief executive officer of The Trust Peter Jeffs.

The Foundation came to see what the Trust and LymeNet were delivering and were so impressed that they invited the Trust to make a full bid to their programme.

Peter Jeffs added: “This is fantastic news; it means that we have not lost a vital part of our role here.

“Our courses tie up closely with our work on careers advice, the Job Club, and business services. We have always been known for our personalised approach, which helps even those people who would struggle with mainstream education, and this very local resource can now continue.

“To have been selected for a grant by such a major organisation, and such an over-subscribed fund, is a reassuring reflection on the importance of our work.”

This award follows on from two other, much smaller, grants and the award of two major careers advice contracts which have been won this year by the trust.

Peter said: “Whilst we will still need to work hard to balance our budgets, this grant is a huge help.

“It also justifies Lyme Regis Town Council’s decision to financially support LymeNet’s work through this difficult transition year.”