Skill UP: leadership and enterprise. Providing business education to support the regional skills base

Abstract

Liverpool Business School aims to support the business community by providing business education, alongside expertise and support through clinical business practice, that aligns to the LJMU strategic goal of place and partnership.

As the Liverpool City Region is focused on long-term and sustainable growth. Liverpool Business School [LBS] aims to support this by developing leadership, management and enterprise skills in the local workforce through our projects and programmes. The enhanced knowledge and skills delivered by the School aims to have a real impact on business in the region, as managers become better at building capacity, enhancing productivity and scaling up/growing their business and employees become more enterprise and knowledgeable about the business and themselves.

This presentation will share two European Social Funds projects that LBS are currently involved in. Firstly, LCR Enhance has an emphasis on improving leadership and management. It offers a demand-led training package for small enterprises and their employees in the LCR [LJMU lead] to participants currently fulfilling or with the future potential to uptake higher level management roles. Secondly, Enterprise Hub Skills aims to simplify access to entrepreneurial training, learning and development for Liverpool City Region residents who are thinking about starting their own business, who are self-employed, working or volunteering within or running small businesses [LJMU delivery partner for The Woman Organisation]. The presentation will demonstrate how a group of academics from the Business School are delivering on the said projects and share valuable insights into the successes and challenges. In addition, views from participants and business owners as to the value of such courses will be disseminated. Finally, the legacy of the activity will be explored beyond the European Social Funding.