Here at the Heart of the South West Growth Hub we look to keep you updated on the latest Government and local business support, including help with mitigating the impacts of Coronavirus (Covid-19) for your business.
Funding boost to get more young people into work
New £1000 cash support for Employers in England to help with the cost of providing a traineeship. The Traineeship Employer Incentive will support young people to gain the skills and experience they need, helping them to get a job, an apprenticeship, or pursue further study.
A traineeship is a skills development programme that includes a work placement of six weeks to twelve months and has a focus on developing employability skills, alongside additional English, maths and digital skills.
Businesses offering the new traineeship opportunities will receive the £1,000 bonus for every trainee they take on, up to a maximum of 10 trainees. Employers can claim the cash incentive for all work placements that have been completed since 1 September.
Read the full press release online.
The Heart of the South West Growth Support Programme (GSP) has launched its new Adapt + Revive initiative which is a free programme to boost businesses in the south west. Sign-up to find out how you could improve your business’s performance with free 1:1s with business advisers alongside training and webinars on digital skills, finance, HR and more.
Speak to the Growth Hub team about the support available, or register today at https://www.
Growth Hub Retail Digital Support
Retailers are encouraged to sign-up to the Growth Hub’s latest retail support programme. Through the Retail Digital Support programme, businesses can learn about which digital technologies can help increase their revenue and how to adopt and exploit online sales platforms.
Delivered by Cosmic, businesses can attend online workshops and receive a follow-up 1:1 advice.
Should this be of interest to you, contact our Growth Hub team on 03456 047 047 or complete our online enquiry form and ask about our digital support for retailers. https://www.
- You can find out the latest updates on our Growth Hub Covid-19 business support pages. Further details on financial measures and schemes on the Government’s Coronavirus Business Support Hub. See HM Government Coronavirus Business Support Hub.National Lockdown: Stay at home – You can read information about the national lockdown rules and regulations, including which business can stay open, at the Gov.uk national lockdown guidance pages here.Somerset West and Taunton – Covid Business Support Grants
Somerset West and Taunton Council is inviting applications for the business grant schemes related to the current National Lockdown and for any other schemes that occurred after 5 November 2020.For more information and to register your interest, visit the Council’s website.
Changes to the Kickstart Scheme
There have been some important changes to the Kickstart Scheme. Kickstart provides funding to employers to create job placements for 16-24 year olds on universal credit.
From 3 February, employers can apply directly to the Kickstart scheme for any number of job placements and the threshold for 30 job placements has been removed. You can also choose to apply through a Kickstart gateway, including those supporting sole traders.
Read the full press release online and see the Kickstart page for specific information for employers.
Webinar Series with Taunton Chamber of Commerce and Barclays Bank
Taunton Chamber of Commerce has partnered Barclays to deliver a series of FREE webinars to support local businesses.
From February until June 2021, five events are planned to take place covering a range of important business topics:
- 9 February – Continuing to trade with the EU
- 24 March – Data Privacy – what you need to know
- 21 April – Making your Business Digital
- 19 May – Growing your Business with Data
- 23 June – Growing Globally
See the Chamber website for more information and how to book.
Business resilience support for farming and food processing businesses
The Growth Hub is launching a new service aimed at helping farming, farm diversification and food processing businesses to build resilience into their businesses and to support with being better able to adapt and respond to changing circumstances such as impacts of EU exit, changes to agricultural support and any other external factors that present challenges and opportunities to the business.
Should this be of interest to you, contact our Growth Hub team on 03456 047 047 or complete our online enquiry form and ask about farming & food business support. https://www.heartofswgrowthhub.co.uk/get-in-touch/
Digital Advantage – Digital Leadership course
Cosmic is running a five-part course to help businesses develop their digital skills. The course will start on the 3 February and finish on 26 May, from 10am until 3pm each day.
The course will consider different aspects a business’s organisation from transformative technology, navigating new technology, digitising business models to staff training needs. Open to businesses in North Devon.
Sign to the Digital Leadership course here.
Launch of Listening Ear for Devon business owners
Are you feeling the pressure of trying to run a business during a pandemic? Listening Ear is a new pilot programme that’s here to help…
Running a business is stressful at the best of times. Running a business during a pandemic is even harder. Listening Ear is a new service for Devon businesses that offers people a safe space to chat about those challenges on the telephone.
If you would like to find out more about talking to our Listening Ear volunteers, please visit https://www.devoncommunities.org.uk/projects/listening-ear, contact info@devoncommunities.org.uk or call 01392 248919.
Listening Ear is funded by Devon County Council and has been developed in partnership with Devon Communities Together. It is initially a pilot until March 2021, with the possibility of being extended and expanded in the future.
Brexit: New rules are here
The UK has left the EU, and the Brexit transition period has ended. There are new rules for businesses doing business with the EU from 1 January, and you need to take action now. See our Growth Hub UK Transition pages for Brexit information, webinars and business guides.
HMRC Webinar – Exporting: what you need to do to keep your goods moving
29th January, 1.45 to 2.45pm
HMRC are hosting a webinar to help explain what actions businesses need to take to export goods from Great Britain to the EU and move goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They will provide a run-through of the key export processes – staged border controls, zero-rated VAT, customs declaration, using an intermediary as well as licences, certificates and authorisations required.
Register online for your place now.
Speak to our Growth Hub team about EU Transition clinics for Somerset businesses or book directly by emailing somersetclinics@internationaltradematter.com or phone 01398 332881.
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