10 Dec East of England SME Growth: Help to Grow Course Reaches New Milestone
More than 10,000 business leaders across the UK – including nearly 700 in the East of England – have enrolled on the Help to Grow: Management Course to provide them with the knowledge and confidence to boost their business performance, according to official figures.
The newly released Department for Business and Trade data* shows 670 business leaders in the East of England have enrolled on the 12-week course.
The 90% government-funded programme was launched in April 2021 to help business leaders and senior managers to increase resilience, innovation, and growth within their organisations. It comprises 12 modules which have been updated multiple times since launch to ensure they continue to address the changing challenges that SME leaders face. The course includes 10 hours of 1-2-1 business mentoring, peer learning, and access to a dedicated alumni network for ongoing support and development.
Across the UK as a whole, 10,635 business leaders have enrolled on the Help to Grow: Management Course as of the 30th September 2024. Of these, two in five (38%) identified as female and 14% are from an ethnic minority background compared to 18% and 6% in the wider business population.
Delivered by 62 Small Business Charter accredited business schools across the UK, it is available to business leaders in the East at Anglia Ruskin University, Faculty Of Business And Law; University Of Bedfordshire Business School; Cranfield School of Management; University of East Anglia, Norwich Business School and Hertfordshire Business School.
Among the East of England-based businesses with leaders who have completed the course are:
Anglia Translations
Idenfo
Research by Ipsos** has shown that nine in ten UK programme completers (91%) reported improved leadership and management skills after completing the Help to Grow: Management Course, and the same percentage felt that they had an increased awareness of factors that drive business productivity and growth. To date 74% have reported that the programme increased their business’ resilience to external economic factors and 62% have reported increased sales.
The study also points to the benefits of collaboration and networking with the majority feeling better supported to make decisions about their business (82%) and feeling less isolated in their role as a business leader (72%).
Leo Hopley, owner of Rustic Kitchen, a family business based in Worcestershire, was the first person to enrol on the course, in April 2021. He said: “I didn’t have much business experience at all when I partnered with my dad to run Rustic Kitchen, the catering side of Hopley Farm, so I jumped at the opportunity when I saw the 90% government-funded Help to Grow: Management Course. We’ve grown over the years but what I learned on the course allowed us to professionalise. It gave me a grounding in the fundamentals of running a business, helped me to understand business frameworks that I could use to manage Rustic Kitchen and showed me how to structure the business for future growth. When making decisions, we still go back to the mission, vision and values three years later.
“Having 10 hours of 1-2-1 mentoring as part of the course was really beneficial for me. I learned a lot from my mentor. She helped me drill down into the financial management module and to identify which activities were profitable and we now focus on smaller, more profitable events. I think there’s something to be gained no matter what point you are at in your business career. In fact, our operations manager has just started the Help to Grow: Management Course and she has many years of hospitality experience.”
