Hello, welcome to the November newsletter. My name is Kevin Aisbitt and I am the Growth Hub manager.

Just some of the things to update you on since the last newsletter. We had a really successful COP26 conference with over 40 attendees. If anyone would like any more information on what was discussed and also the ongoing support available, please contact the team.

We also had a really successful Worcestershire Apprenticeship awards which took place online. This was really great to see and also to see so many young people doing so well at work. For ourselves we employ two apprentices and encourage other businesses who don’t have any apprentices to look at this, they really are key assets to an organisation.

As part of our ongoing work to encourage companies to think about innovation, one of the visits that took place recently was to the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. We took over 30 companies involved in manufacturing to the centre. This was really positive, and we’ve seen a number of companies express interest and had further conversations with the centre in terms of how they can collaborate in terms of technology but also companies talking to each other about joint collaboration in areas of innovation that could really help with the productivity of the business, bringing new products to market as result of the visit.

The ongoing activity with out Peer Networks, we’ve got two groups running at the moment, the third group we are just recruiting for and a fourth is due to start its activity in January of next year. We do still have places available, so I encourage you to get in contact with the team and well get you signed up to the programme.

Coming up is the support available through the specialist advisors we’ve engaged. This is in the areas of marketing & communications, financial advice, looking at the green agenda, the adoption of technology ad just the general business structure and whether the business if fit for purpose for the next months and years to come. Its really going in there and helping you understand what you can do as far as forward planning to help with the growth of the company.

As well as the existing funding programmes that exist in the county, there are new programmes being launched in the new year. I really would encourage a business looking to make any investment whatsoever, whether that be a revenue or capital spend to get in touch with our team!