The NE Region Learning & Skills Council funded Leadership and Management skills development programme is set to continue under the management of NBSL.

Since 2004, NBSL has successfully assisted over 1,000 businesses of varying sizes, sectors and NE locations take advantage of this programme.  Working in collaboration with the region’s Train to Gain skills programme, eligible North East businesses within the private, public, community and voluntary sectors (including social enterprises) can benefit from a fully-funded organisational leadership and management (L&M) diagnostic.  This includes personal assessment of one or two key managers, resulting in personal development plans to develop capability and capacity to lead and manage their organisation.

Based upon these identified business needs and personal development plans, grant funding may then be available to assist purchase of their chosen L&M development activity for the key personnel, with follow-up support from NBSL’s L&M Specialist Advisers to ensure participating businesses are informed of complementary skills and business development assistance for their workforce and organisation.

Mike Pratt, Chief Executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust who recently took advantage of the programme, commented; “I can thoroughly recommend the Leadership and Management Programme for all senior management staff.  The support we received helped us work more cohesively and to re-prioritise our work programmes, particularly focussing our efforts on cross-team working.  The programme was tailored to our requirements and provided excellent personal assessments on which we built a framework of further training that we aim to take forward in the future.  It has been a powerful tool for individuals as well as team and the business as a whole”

Joy Gair, L&M Development Manager at NBSL said “Management training is relevant to businesses of any size, playing a vital role in business success.  Often, businesses recognise the ‘obvious’ skills development areas, for example marketing, IT and finance; unfortunately the ‘less obvious’, but possibly more important skills area, of leadership and management can be overlooked.  We continue to work with the LSC and our Regional Development Agency, One NorthEast, to assist NE businesses to build competitive advantage for themselves and our region.”

Whether you are a business wanting to benefit from this offer, or just interested to find out more about the programme, please contact NBSL on 01670  844555.