North West business leaders benefit from local help to grow: Management Course

• More than 350 SME leaders across the North West complete Help to Grow: Management Course 
• Recently published data¹ from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) reveals nine in 10 (91%) would recommend Help to Grow: Management to other business leaders
• North West SMEs looking for support are encouraged to sign-up to next cohort

More than 350 business leaders across the North West have now completed the Help to Grow: Management Course in a bid to strengthen resilience and innovation, according to new figures from the Department for Business and Trade.

The 12-week Help to Grow: Management Course was founded in April 2021 to help business leaders and senior managers to increase resilience, innovation, and growth within their organisations.

By February 2023, 375 SME leaders in the North West had finished the course across four business schools at Lancaster University, University of Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University, and University of Salford Manchester*. Throughout the UK, 3,340 people had completed the course across 52 UK business schools.

Research², published in May and undertaken by Ipsos, highlights the impact Help to Grow: Management has had on UK businesses. Seven in 10 (69%) report greater confidence in leading and managing their business while two thirds (66%) felt their leadership and management skills had improved.

SME leaders across a variety of sectors have benefitted from taking part in the training including those in manufacturing, construction, professional services, scientific, and technical industries, and information and communication. Help to Grow: Management comprises four waves of three modules, 1-2-1 business mentoring, peer-learning and access to the Alumni Network.

Encouragingly, six in 10 (61%) UK business leaders now have a better understanding of how to innovate their business model and are more aware of factors that drive business productivity and growth. Over nine in 10 (92%) say they have shared what they learned or gained with others in their business after completing the programme.

The advice given to help business leaders embrace working in a post-Covid era also resulted in almost four in five (78%) reporting improved employee engagement.

Help to Grow: Management has supported leaders from often under-represented demographics. Nearly a fifth (17%) of participants identified as being from ethnic minority backgrounds, compared to 6% of all UK SME owners, whilst a third (34%) were women, compared to 24% of UK SME owners. A broad range of ages were also welcomed to the course with one in five aged between 50-65 and a quarter aged between 25-34.

Report findings³ also showed that 91% of participants would recommend Help to Grow: Management to other business leaders.

Louise Nicholson, Founder and Managing Director of Warrington-based Little Superstars, a sports and holiday club for children, signed up for the course at Manchester Metropolitan University. She said: “I would recommend the Help to Grow: Management Course. It gave me new ways of looking at my business through its modules and case study content and, on top of that, I found it inspiring for my own journey as a small business leader.

“I was lucky enough to bounce ideas and talk with a brilliant mentor. It can be difficult to talk to staff because they are not looking at business problems from the same perspective, so the ability to explain my organisation’s challenges and thoughts with a mentor was very useful.”

Michael Hayman MBE, Chair, Small Business Charter, said: “The success of the UK’s SME sector is critical to the growth of the wider economy. The Help to Grow: Management Course is designed to directly benefit our vibrant SME sector, equipping today’s leaders and future leaders with the tools, knowledge and confidence to identify and lead change, innovation and growth. It’s also brilliant to see the course attracting a wider diversity of business leaders, something we want to continue embracing as the programme progresses.

“We look forward to continuing to support business leaders across the North West and the rest of the UK as they take the steps needed to introduce change that will help them for years to come.”

Delivered by Small Business Charter-accredited business schools, the course is available in more than 50 locations across the UK with 90% of the fee participants pay covered by the government.

The value of the programme continues long after participants have finished the course with the majority (86%) continuing to interact with other SME leaders outside of their firm through networking and informal discussions.

Almost one in four (23%) also continue to be mentored by their Help to Grow: Management mentor while many are exploring further courses (67%), attending alumni events (59%) and gaining new accreditations (43%).

*North West business schools that now offer the Help to Grow: Management Course include:

• Lancaster University Management School;
• University of Central Lancashire;
• University of Liverpool Management School;
• Manchester Metropolitan University Business School;
• Salford Business School, University of Salford Manchester.