Video Transcript
Hello and welcome to the April Worcestershire Growth Hub newsletter. As we head into the new financial year, I’d like to start with a high, a success story from the Growth Hub team. As many of you will hopefully be aware, we’ve been delivering the third phase of our Specialist business adviser programme, and that came to a close at the end of March. I’m pleased to say that over 220 businesses were able to benefit from that programme. Accessing free 1 to 1 support for their business across a variety of sectors and specialisms. If you were unable to access this program, make sure you contact the team so that we can add you to our database and then you will be updated on future phases of that scheme and others.
As we look forward to the new financial year, there’s many more support and events and webinars coming up, which I’d like to make you aware of, starting with apprenticeships. For those of you who don’t know, apprenticeships offer a great way for an organisation to start creating its future workforce, hiring people who are eager to learn and can be developed into the ideal employee. There’s a lot of support available to businesses who are considering hiring an apprentice and to raise the profile of this support, the Growth Hub have joined forces with Worcestershire Apprenticeships team to run two support clinics on the 20th of April. This is your chance to engage with the experts and understand exactly how your business could benefit from hiring an apprentice. Spaces are limited at these events, so please contact the team and book your place sooner rather than later.
The 20th of April is a busy day for us. We’ve also joined forces with Worcestershire County Council to deliver a sustainability webinar. This is aimed at helping businesses tackle the rising energy costs. It’s a free webinar and a chance for your business to hear from local experts about how to take control of your energy usage and reduce your costs. More information on this webinar is available in the newsletter, and as you will have heard me mention in previous newsletters, we’re helping to complete the Local Skills Improvement Plan. Asking local organisations to provide their thoughts and feedback to help inform national partners about the skills provision needed to better support businesses and their skills needs. This is the last chance to enter the survey with the deadline fast approaching. Please can I encourage as many businesses as possible to take part, to have your say and help us to help you ensure that you have the provision needed to create your future workforce. A link to the survey is in the newsletter.
Finally, this is the last newsletter that you will see with me in it. We are rejigging the newsletter. We are launching it again in May. This new newsletter will be in a slightly different format, but hopefully a lot easier for you to navigate and get to those stories that matter to your businesses quicker. So farewell from me and I wish you a very happy April and we look forward to seeing you again in May.