ESF-Works

Business Creation Partnership

Logo for Business Creation Partnership

Description

Some of the BCP mentors. L-R: Rob, Conrad, Guminder, Cina, Maureen & Simon.

Background

The Business Creation Partnership was created to address the problems and overcome the barriers that disadvantaged groups in Northamptonshire faced in seeking employment. The project ran from September 2004 to September 2007.

The entrepreneurial activity of setting up small businesses is a way of both creating employment and empowering disadvantaged individuals and communities. Recognising this, the DP piloted new ways of supporting the business creation process based on targeted research to identify and address the specific enterprise support needs of these disadvantaged groups.

The vision of the project was to enable disadvantaged groups to play a full part in the social and economic success of Northamptonshire through the process of new business creation. The overall aim of the Business Creation Partnership was to develop, implement and evaluate new ways of providing effective business start up support to disadvantaged groups in Northamptonshire.

Project Objectives
  • Develop a strategy for overcoming the obstacles confronted by each disadvantaged group in both urban and rural areas during business creation
  • Train a group of fully accredited business support mentors from within the disadvantaged communities and provide appropriate professional support
  • Enable the group of business support mentors to assist beneficiaries from disadvantaged communities in the process of business creation
  • Award beneficiaries with a Certificate in Enterprise and the corresponding Year 1 Foundation Degree credit thus enabling members of disadvantaged groups to continue with a Foundation Degree in Enterprise at The University of Northampton should they wish to enhance their position in the labour market
  • Undertake systematic evaluation of the outputs of the project, both in terms of new businesses created and new employment opportunities generated (hard outputs), and in terms of the development of the confidence, self-esteem and skills of the beneficiaries (soft outputs)
  • Develop the infrastructure that will underpin the process of business creation in disadvantaged communities, to include: i) new training material; ii) innovative access to this material using new web-based technologies and work-based learning; iii) the accreditation of business support mentors from the disadvantaged communities using existing DTI approved qualifications

 Target Groups

  • BME community
  • Ex-offenders
  • People living in the rural community
  • Women

Round

2

Round 1 to Round 2

This Development Partnership was not involved in Round One.

Lead partner

The University of Northampton >>
www.northampton.ac.uk >>

Core partners

Business Link East Midlands >>

Transnational partnerships

Information for Transnational partnerships

Contact

Simon Denny
The University of Northampton
simon.denny@northampton.ac.uk >>

End-dates

Action 2: 30 June 2007
Action 3: 30 September 2007

Equal theme

Business creation

Origins

The Sunley Management Centre which is part of The University of Northampton formed a partnership with the newly created Enterprise Solutions Northamptonshire (ESN) to deliver the Equal project. ESN is the trading name of the Northamptonshire Co-operative Development Agency (NCDA) and is an accredited Local Enterprise Agency. The NCDA has been supporting cooperatives in the county since 1981. Sunley Management Centre, also formed in 1981, has been delivering accredited corporate management development programmes through The University of Northampton. The Centre has a reputation for supporting disadvantaged groups.

Beneficiaries

BME groups, Ex-offenders, Rural communities, Women
Total beneficiaries: 526 beneficiaries of which 361 have been women and 108 have been from the ethnic communities.

Achievements

Establishment of the University of Northampton Enterprise Club

The Enterprise club provides a forum for people to meet, gain more business knowledge and access a large range of associated benefits. The Enterprise club has been mainstreamed and will continue now the Business Creation Partnership project has finished. For more information see: http://www.sunley-northampton.co.uk/enterprise_club

New businesses created

Since the beginning of Action 2 the Business Creation Partnership has supported 340 new businesses, through business support, mentoring, training, etc, depending on the needs of each client. A wide variety of business have been created under the scheme, from window cleaners and hairdressers, to consultants and trainers.

Number of people employed

c. 380 new jobs were created as a result of the project.  

Number of beneficiaries supported

At the beginning of the project the aim of the Business Creation Partnerhip was to recruit 120 beneficiaries and work with them towards the accreditation and the setting up of their businesses. However, due to the high demand, by end of June 2007 the Business Creation Partnerhip had recruited 526 beneficiaries from disadvantaged communities. 

Recruited Business Mentors from disadvantage communities

The Business Creation Partnership recruited 34 mentors from disadvantaged communities. Sixteen of these are now fully accredited and the remaining would like to continue with the accreditation and are looking for funding to continue with the scheme.  

Successful Transnational Exchanges

Business Creation Partnership organised two beneficiary exchanges, one to Malta and one in Northampton. Both exchanges were very successful as beneficiaries had the opportunity to network with international entrepreneurs. One of the UK beneficiaries was approached by a Maltese company to deliver training services for them for six months. The mentor exchange that took place in October 2006 was also successful as mentors had the opportunity to share best practice.

Intended impact/ sustainability

In 2007 the project director and manager were successful in securing a contract from the East Midlands Development Agency to provide a new business start up support scheme in Northamptonshire. This contract, delivered under the Business Link brand runs to 2011. Clients are provided with one-to-one advice, training, and support from mentors. Therefore, the Business Creation Partnership project has been successfully mainstreamed.

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Connections

Main outputs

CD-ROM
Evaluation Showcase - Evaluating the Impact of the Business Creation Partnership >> Dr Simon Denny (Project Manager) and Maria Cabello (Project Administrator) discuss the findings of Business Creation Partnership Project in this online web based evaluation showcase.


Activities and products

Printable document
Business Mentoring >> This two-day course gives participants an understanding of what business mentoring involves.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Business Qualifications >> This project consists of two qualifications - Preparing for Enterprise and Mentoring.Expand/collapse Products (1)


ActivityME BCP P2E is a transnational partnership
ME BCP P2E >> The partners from England, Malta and Ireland have joined forces to share knowledge, information and project material that will assist disadvantaged people to participate more fully in economic success through enterprise creation.


Printable document
Equal Newsletter Issues 1- 9 >> The Business Creation Partnership  beneficiaries stated the need of a monthly communication tool that was informative and empowering at the same time, so the DP Board decided to create the Equal Newsletter which could be used as a tool to disseminate the project information, as well as promote Equal beneficiaries, training, etc.


Printable document
Participant Case Studies >>The experience of seven participants of the Business Creation partnership are outlined in PDF documents listed below.