Press release - 30 October 2019 10:56

Newcastle Business School awarded Government funding to help microbusinesses use tech to grow

Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University has been awarded funding to support 50 microbusinesses to engage with technology to boost their productivity.

Newcastle Business School is part of a consortium of business schools accredited by the Small Business Charter for their expertise in supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs who will deliver the programme. The Leading to Grow Programme will be offered at no cost to microbusinesses across England.

Businesses that employ up to nine people will be able to apply to take part in workshops around how to utilise existing technologies to improve efficiency and profitability.

The funding has been made available through the government’s £9m Business Basics Programme run by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Innovate UK.

Due to the small size and the dispersed nature of microbusinesses, they have not routinely received planned interventions by government agencies. The Government is now targeting this type of business due to their potential and readiness to scale-up, and this is the first time that such a programme has been coordinated across the country.

With so many areas being covered it is hoped that this free programme will help a large number of microbusinesses and support economic growth in a number of regions.

The UK’s 1.1 million microbusinesses employ over 4 million people and contribute £533bn to the UK economy. The business schools, the Small Business Charter and the government hope to make a real impact on this important part of the economy.

Nigel Coates, Associate Professor and Director of The Business Clinic at Newcastle Business School, said:‘We are delighted to be involved in this exciting new programme, aimed at helping microbusinesses improve productivity through the use of technology. We will be supporting fifty organisations across the North East region and look forward to seeing the results and success this programme brings’.

Anne Kiem, Executive Director of the Small Business Charter and Chief Executive of the Chartered Association of Business Schools, said:

"We are excited to be working with business schools to help improve the productivity of a range of microbusinesses. The pace of technological advances means that today’s small firms who embrace innovation will be tomorrow’s success stories”

For more information and to apply for a workshop please email businessclinic@northumbria.ac.uk

Topics

1.Press contacts
Rik Kendall
PR and Media Manager, Northumbria University

T: +44 (0)191 227 3598

M: +44 (0)7923 382339

E: rik.kendall@northumbria.ac.uk

Barney Roe
Director of Communications & External Relations
Small Business Charter - Chartered Association of Business Schools

Tel: 020 7634 9589 Email: barney.roe@charteredabs.org

2.About Newcastle Business School

Newcastle Business School is part of an elite group of business schools worldwide with double accreditation by the international Association to Advance Collegiate Business Schools (AACSB) for Business and Accounting. In 2014 it became the first business school in Europe to achieve this mark of excellence, and in April 2019 received reaccreditation in Business and Accounting for a further five years.Newcastle Business School is a recent winner of the Times Higher Education’s UK Business School of the Year Award.By combining high-quality academic work with direct experience in innovative programmes such as the Business Clinic and the Entrepreneurial Business Management course, students can be confident of graduating with the skills to develop highly successful careers.

For more information please visit www.northumbria.ac.uk

3.Small Business Charter

The Small Business Charter grew out of Lord Young’s report ‘Growing Your Business’, with the aim of bringing business schools, business and entrepreneurs together to deliver support for small businesses and drive local economic growth. The award is a nationally recognised kitemark and we facilitate valuable knowledge sharing networks to ensure the value of the business school knowledge, management expertise, and enterprise education offered by our business schools is maximised and utilised.

The SBC website acts as a hub connecting small businesses with business advice and support provided by the 33 business schools which have achieved the award.

For more information about the SBC: smallbusinesscharter.org

4.About the Chartered Association of Business Schools

The Chartered Association of Business Schools is the voice of the UK’s business and management education sector. We support our members to maintain world-class standards of teaching and research, and help shape policy and create opportunities through dialogue with business and government.

For more information about the Chartered ABS: charteredabs.org