Member Article

North West business support going from strength to strength

It’s been a busy week at Lancaster University. Next week our leavers return for their graduation ceremonies. Our team in careers are involved in some work with Job Centre Plus currently and have been supporting Lancaster University’s China Catalyst programme, seeking companies who have an interest in building relationships with the Far East. There has also been great news confirming funding for the Lancaster Health Innovation Park, which is thought may create up to 2000 jobs.

Earlier this week I was with the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce Business Support Network. The group meets on a quarterly basis and comprises of a variety of members, each involved in SME support functions. It’s useful for the business community to understand that collectively we, as supporters of growth in the area, are very keen to ensure that we work together to effectively respond to business needs.

The meetings regularly include representation from UK Trade and Industry (UKTI), the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS), Boost Business Lancashire, the Cumbria Growth Hub, University of Cumbria, Lancaster University, Lancaster and Morecambe College, Lancashire County Council, Growth Accelerator, Access to Finance, Superfast Lancashire and the Unite with Business project.

Hot topics this week centred on how we can work together to ensure that businesses are getting better access to the skills they require to enable growth. As a provider of higher education we want to ensure we are doing the right things to prepare students for work. Other updates included support from MAS regarding financing of asset purchases and the incentives available, whilst updates from Superfast Lancashire included a number of training and development seminars coming up in the North Lancashire district.

Our overall message is that as supporters of business we are here to help and want to engage. I would finish by reiterating a comment from Andrew Leeming of Boost Business Lancashire in last month’s Lancashire Business View, “If there are roughly 44,000 businesses in Lancashire we probably engage with, if we’re lucky, about 10%. We’d love to engage with the next 20-30%.” The same can be said for all the support services in the region.

Daniel Knowles is an ERDF Project Manager for Unite with Business at Lancaster University, Careers Coach and Blogger. Please feel free to connect on Linkedin or follow on Twitter @lancastericv.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Daniel Knowles .