News in Brief

Funding available for Management & Leadership Training to SMEs in the West Midlands

Advantage West Midlands have announced a further investment of £1.8 million to enable senior management teams of 300 businesses with high growth potential employing typically between 50 and 400 people to improve their business performance through developing their leadership and management skills.

As part of this programme, Advantage West Midlands is also trialing the leadership and management support with groups of owner managers.  This will enable smaller companies with high growth potential to access the support through working with other like minded owner managers.

The service has already helped many companies involved in the pilot programme over the past two years. The success of the pilot has now led to the service being rolled out as part of a wider portfolio of services run by Business Link West Midlands across the region.

The Leadership and Management service begins when an independent, specialist business advisor visits the firm and spends time in-house, interviewing staff and managers, to ascertain where improvements can be made. The advisor then recommends an appropriate course of action, which is measured over a period of time to gauge performance. Advice varies according to the firm and industry, but examples have included confidential staff surveys, managers undertaking specialist training or staff members visiting other firms to witness best practice.

For more details, access the Leadership and Management programme brochure online (PDF).

If you want your business to be one of the 300 extra companies to benefit from this service, contact Business Link West Midlands on 0845 113 1234 or email: leaders@businesslinkwm.co.uk.

Posted on 30 Sep 2008