employment and skills
April/May 2021 business edge
The STEP-UP programme By Zoe Webb
Delivery & Development Manager STEP-UP
What is STEP-UP? STEP-UP (SME’s Transformation Engagement Programme – Universities Partnership) is an innovative skills training and internship offer to SMEs in the Coast-to-Capital region. It offers SMEs the opportunity to build relationships with their local universities of Brighton and Sussex, and to get a fully funded graduate intern over the Summer. In addition, registered SMEs will get access to a series of free learning and development workshops, currently being delivered remotely. Due to the impact of COVID-19, STEP-UP has been updated to be more flexible and time-efficient for participating SMEs.
Background to STEP-UP STEP-UP is a collaboration between the universities of Brighton and Sussex for local SMEs, current final year students and recent graduates. It was devised because data has shown that graduates tend to leave the region to seek jobs in London, so STEP-UP was created to support businesses growth through retaining graduate talent in the Coast-to-Capital region now and into the future. Fundamentally, STEP-UP is about bridging the gap between the supply of graduates with high-level skills, and the demand for workforce-ready employees within the Coast-to-Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (C2C LEP) region.
Success so far The programme is accessible, flexible, and time-efficient for businesses. STEP-UP has already been very popular with SMEs in the Coast-to-Capital region, attracting over 100 registrations, with capacity to support a further 30 SME businesses. Registration window for SMEs has been extended to April 31 2021.
Why register?
Following the online masterclass series, there is the opportunity to recruit a fully-funded graduate intern for six weeks over Summer 2021.
Timescale: Masterclass sessions have been running throughout March for registered SMEs, and will continue to run until the end of May. Internships will take place any time from the end of May to the end of August 2021.
Interns will be selected from a pool of 300 of the most skilled and selfmotivated graduates. Each graduate will have completed a series of employability workshops focused on skills identified as most in demand by SME employers, including: Problem solving and creativity, Understanding SME businesses, and Becoming a self-starter.
Registration window for SMEs has been extended to April 31 2021.
Supported, free access to four online mastercalasses for SMEs, which can be attended by any staff member from the business. Plus, two recorded sessions sent to you to watch in your own time.
For more information, and to register and sign up please visit www.brighton. ac.uk/business-services/step-up or email the STEP-UP team at stepup@brighton.ac.uk
The masterclasses are designed and delivered by industry experts on the following four themes: getting the best from your graduate intern, intern onboarding, coaching & mentoring skills and an introduction to action learning sets.
Who is eligible? To be eligible, SMEs need to be commercial businesses who are based in the Coast-to-Capital region, including notfor-profit organisations.
Information about upcoming webinars available at www.brighton.ac.uk/ business-services/step-up The Step-Up programme is co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) as part of the 20142020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England. Grant Reference: 04S18P02524
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