The University of Bath is to establish two new ‘business acceleration hubs’ for advanced engineering and digital innovation SMEs in the region.

Bath has been awarded £1.5 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to deliver start-up, scale-up, open innovation and investment support to grow 100 digitally innovative businesses and 130 advanced engineering businesses over the next three years.

Entrepreneurs from creative and cultural backgrounds in Bath & North East Somerset can now apply to be a part of a new West of England network to help set up and grow successful businesses.

The Network for Creative Enterprise enables a group of creative organisations to offer tailored events, workshops and mentoring for individuals and small enterprises to make a sustainable living from their ideas. The network includes The Guild in Bath and a number of other creative organisations across the West of England.

Export for Growth is holding two free workshops in Bath this January to help businesses take their first steps into selling overseas. Both workshops are a great learning opportunitiy for South West businesses that are new to exporting, with one on the subject of social media advertising and the second aimed at the artisan business community.
 

We all know there is more we can do to make our businesses more sustainable, resilient and environmentally friendly, but we don’t necessarily get the time to think about the ways we can quickly and easily make the changes – and sometimes we haven’t considered something at all!

Low Carbon South West is putting on a breakfast workshop to hear how water, light, systems, IT and resource can all be simply thought of and improved.

Attract, train and retain the right people

Your people are key to productivity and business growth. Here in the West of England our low unemployment rate often means businesses struggle to find employees with the correct skills. This is where Skills West can help.

Skills advisers will help you to identify and tackle skills gaps in your business, and can connect you with local and national training providers to ensure you get the most relevant, quality training.