Polish Up Your Leadership & Management Skills with a £1K Grant
Applications are now closed for 2011 – there may be a new scheme from April 2012 – Watch This Space!
The Leadership and Management funding program for small business owners and managers is back, but with a different spin.
Call Linda on 0771 9439 229 or email linda@businesstalent.co.uk to discuss your eligibility and training requirements.
Download LM Employers’ Information Leaflet
If you own a company with 2 to 49 employees and you have been resident in the UK for the past three years you may be eligible for a leadership and management training grant of £1,000 which you must match with another £1,000 of your own funding (or £500 matched with £500). You can spend these funds on getting external coaching and training to help you expand your business management and leadership skills, or if you have more than 10 staff the grant can be spent on developing your staff.
There are a few other eligibility criteria which have just been revised (August 2011).
The funding is for companies with the potential for high growth, which is defined in terms of employee growth or turnover growth (see deatails below). If you have been in business for less than a year you are eligible if you expect to reach a turnover of £500k in three years.
Here is a short summary of the new eligibility criteria:
* The requirement for the CEO or equivalent to be the beneficiary
of the training has change so that organisations employing 10 or more
staff will be able to delegate to another direct report who has strategic
responsibility for the organisation (was 50 or more staff).
* The current “straight line” growth projection of turnover or
employment of 20% per year over 3 years (10% for Social Enterprises)
has changed to 60% growth projection over 3 years (30% for Social
Enterprises). The new requirement will allow for more “lumpy”
growth patterns for all sectors.
* The definition of Eligible Training is “development which will support beneficiaries to fully engage and optimise the contribution of their staff or areas such as Business Development Strategy which would impact directly on the performance of the WHOLE organisation and its capacity to grow. Therefore activity focussed on one function of the SME such as Admin, Finance, Sales or Marketing is not eligible”.
* Financial Training is eligible (but not financial software training),
and Strategic Business Planning is also eligible. Project Management is not supported.
These changes will help you to access the funding for development areas previously denied.
In order to demonstrate that your business has potential to grow rapidly you will need to have at least three of the following:
* Business Plan or Company Objectives
* Financial Projections
* Staffing Projections
* Evidence of New Contracts
* Order Book
* Forward Strategy document
* Investment or plans for investment in premises/equipment/staff
* Product/Service development activity
* Marketing or Exploiting plans
* Evidence of new funding/finance
* Other
In the past the scheme has been hugely popular partly because the application process is relatively fast and simple, especially in London where it can take as little as two weeks to secure grant approval.
There is no knowing how long this pot of funding will be available so grab it now if the fit is right for you.
Call Linda on 0771 9439 229 or email linda@businesstalent.co.uk to discuss your eligibility and training requirements.
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