NFEA members are helping over 90 small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in North East England weather the economic downturn through a dedicated business support programme.
The £1.2m project, ‘Innovation, Advice and Guidance - Developing SME Expertise’ will put in place a matching service and public subsidy to give SMEs and social enterprises access to the expertise of skilled workers to help develop new products, processes and services. It will also help regional companies retain their skilled staff with a view to driving forward a new phase of economic growth once the recession is over.
The project will be implemented by NFEA member organisations across the region, including The Enterprise Agency for Wear Valley & Teesdale, Business Innovation Centre, TEDCO and Project North East. The bid is also supported by Northumberland Business Services Ltd, Derwentside Enterprise Agency, East Durham Business Service, SASDA and Five Lamps.
The initiative is being part financed by £600,000 from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2007-13; a figure matched by investment from regional development agency One North East’s Single Programme.
The innovative project, part of the government’s Solutions for Business portfolio of products, will help address the current economic conditions affecting businesses in two ways. Companies with people who might be at risk of redundancy or on short time working will be encouraged to release them for an agreed time to work on a secondment basis in other SMEs and social enterprises in the region.
Once there, they will work on specific projects, using their expertise to help develop new products, processes or services involving, for example, marketing, finance, innovation, commercial or technical issues. This will create a positive situation for both the donating and host businesses, helping to keep businesses resilient and retain highly skilled people in the region.
“Our principal aim is to aid business resilience by providing an accessible and affordable resource of highly skilled, experienced workers to at least 90 organisations,” explained One North East Head of Business, Enterprise and Skills, Tim Pain.
“They will work with them for a fixed period of time on specific areas of expertise to help them push on through the current economic climate. In the longer term, it means we will also be able to retain skilled people in the region by providing them with employment opportunities in host companies when their own employers might be struggling in the short term.
“The agency will subsidise secondment costs depending on the kind of job offered and the ability of host and donor organisations to contribute.”
Shaun Stuart, Chief Executive of Wear Valley and Teesdale Enterprise Agency, said:
“We are delighted to have been chosen by One North East to be part of this innovative project and we are excited by the prospect of being able to actively support regional businesses in the current climate. We will work closely with the North East England Investment Centre, Business Link, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Chamber of Commerce, the North East Social Enterprise Partnership, large companies and projects such as MAS North East and Talent Challenge to raise awareness and ensure the success of the scheme.”
All the partners will act as sources of available workers or businesses that require skilled people. The aim is to get businesses to interact with the scheme before they need to reduce hours or announce redundancy plans for staff.
For information on the wide package of support available to regional companies, call Business Link on 0845 600 9006 or visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast
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