EDUCATION

Supporting recovery, resilience and sustainability through expertise

As an anchor institution in the Leeds City Region, Leeds Beckett University has been playing a key role in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adapt and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to build resilience for a sustainable future.

Academic experts within Leeds Business School have launched a series of freely available support programmes over the last year, including:

The Small Business Leadership Programme

In collaboration with the Small Business Charter and a consortium of UK universities, the Small Business Leadership Programme launched in September 2020. Leeds Beckett has now delivered three cohorts of the programme to a total of 75 SMEs in our region. The free, practical course is delivered online over the course of 10 weeks. It is open to SME business leaders from any sector. Speaking about the programme, one participant commented: “As Paul was talking it was setting off little bulbs in my head. It was great timing because last week we were pitching for a job with a large popular retailer. I already had a draft proposal for the tender and I literally screwed it up and threw it in the bin. I sat down and went through Paul’s comments to structure the proposal. And it was transformed. We went from a proposal with all the standard boxes ticked to a really powerful document that I was so proud of. Watch this space!”

The Calderdale B2B Business Recovery Programme

In partnership with the Business Growth Team at Calderdale Council, Leeds Beckett has supported a pilot group of SMEs in Calderdale in exploring the challenges and opportunities of the current business climate, helping them to bounce back and thrive.

#WECAN

In December 2020, Leeds Beckett launched the Women Empowered through Coaching and Networking (#WECAN) project. Backed by funding from the European Social Fund, this £1.7m new project aims to improve the outcomes for SMEs by boosting the skills and opportunities of women who are self-employed, or working for small businesses and social enterprises across the Leeds City Region.

The Place-based Economic Recovery Network

A team of Leeds Business School academics are contributing their research to the Place-based Economic Recovery Network (PERN) – a university network of experts in regional economic recovery supporting the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in designing, planning and implementing COVID-19 recovery efforts. For more information about Leeds Beckett University’s support for businesses, please contact Natalie Allen n.allen@leedsbeckett.ac.uk 07785 434021 or Kim Yallop k.e.yallop@leedsbeckett.ac.uk 07557 213 958.