As the impact of the pandemic abates, businesses are turning their thoughts to future growth. A new support programme from the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership aims to help SMEs back on the road to success.
This month is National Apprenticeship Week, highlighting the many benefits of hiring an apprentice, both to the apprentice themselves and to you and your business. However, according to SEMLEP’s 2021 Business Survey the number of organisations surveyed employing apprentices has dropped from 12 per cent in 2019 to just 7per cent.
The pandemic is at least partly responsible for this reduction but, as we continue to recover, many businesses are once again looking to grow their businesses and expand their workforce.
Apprenticeships can contribute to this, allowing you to develop your own talent, shaping training to perfectly match your skills requirements, ensuring staff retention with some financial support as your company grows.
If you are one of the companies currently looking to grow, then this is the perfect time to participate in the Growth Curve programme.
BECOME THE PLACE TO WORK
By joining the Growth Curve Programme, you will gain the opportunity to discuss your business, its challenges and your aspirations for the future with one of SEMLEP’s high growth business advisers before going on to attend a university masterclass.
This masterclass consists of a series of intensive, interactive sessions that will focus on developing and honing your leadership and business management skills. These sessions will cover a wide range of topics that could include sales, marketing, human resources and operational efficiency.
The programme is designed to help you to learn how to take a step back and look at your business from different angles.
This will provide you with new insights into the challenges your business faces and allow you to see how other organisations are overcoming similar hurdles.
You will learn new ways of working to better lead yourself and your team and develop an action plan to address the most urgent and important issues facing your business.
It also gives you an invaluable opportunity to connect with like-minded people who can be a source of motivation, support and guidance.
You will be eligible to apply for grant funding – one of the requirements for this is the creation of full-time roles within your organisation, helping your business to grow, expand and acquire the people and skills your organisation needs.
Once you have completed the programme you will continue to get ongoing support, as well as access to a network of your fellow Growth Curve alumni.
Finally, as part of Growth Curve, you will also be notified of future grant funding which you may be eligible for, such as Recovery and Resilience Grants and Additional Restrictions Grants .
Growth Curve is run by SEMLEP’s Growth Hub, in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire, Cranfield University and the University of Northampton, and is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
In order to be eligible to apply to join the Growth Curve programme, your company must be a SME with a maximum turnover of €50 million or an annual balance sheet of €43 million, be based in the South East Midlands, have between three and 250 employees and prior to the pandemic have had annual turnover of £200,000 and had been experiencing or projecting high growth for between two and three years.
For more information, and to see if your company is eligible, visit the SEMLEP Growth Hub website:
