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Local businesses given Help to Grow at Nottingham Business School

Delivered by Nottingham Business School and accredited to the Small Business Charter, our Help To Grow: Management course has supported over 130 small businesses to grow and innovate. The stories below demonstrate the hugely positive and wide-reaching impact the programme has had on business leaders, their organisations, and the wider economy.

Henna Shah - Managing Director of Attock Network Products Ltd

The Help to Grow: Management programme came at the perfect time for Henna as she was seeking to update her business knowledge and apply new thinking to her business. The course also appealed to Henna as it covered such a wide area of business – marketing, HR, and finance were topics of particular interest.

For Henna, the most beneficial part of the course was “connecting with other business leaders and hearing about their stories and experiences and seeing what they can offer in terms of advice to myself and what I can offer them in return.”

Each session of the Help to Grow: Management course is delivered by an expert on the topic. Henna found that the facilitators were “extremely engaging, easy to work with and that they definitely enjoyed what they were doing as well – which helped us all.”

A headshot of Tony Phelps
Tony Phelps - Managing Director of Helapet

Tony found himself transitioning from Sales and Marketing Manager to Managing Director during his time on the Help to Grow: Management course. For Tony, the course proved invaluable in supporting him through his role change and maximising Helapet’s efficiency.

Just as Tony had hoped, the course enabled him to look beyond his usual sales and marketing perspective and broaden his understanding. This was exemplified through Helapet’s development within operations and logistics. The learning and discussion on the course contributed to thinking around continuous development within operations, and subsequently the implementation of further Key Performance Indicators. These KPIs are openly displayed in all areas of the business for staff to see, be it for sales, production, warehousing, or financial performance.

Tony was able to take the learning from the workshops and explore it further through his mentoring. He found this particularly useful when covering the topics outside his comfort zone. “I was matched up very well with my mentor as we both came from scientific backgrounds and went into the commercial world” he says. Helapet has already benefited from the implementation of new ideas and processes, with more long-term results to come through the business’s bespoke action plan.

More about Help to Grow: Management at NBS

Help To Grow: Management includes 50 hours of training over 12 weeks, 1:1 business mentoring, and the opportunity to future-proof your business.

The course costs only £750 (worth £7,500) and is 90% subsidised by the government.

Designed to be manageable alongside full-time work, you can take part around your existing work commitments and access learning through a blend of short online and face-to-face sessions.

The next programme (cohort 14) starts on 17th May from, Nottingham Trent University’s City Campus, with cohort 15 scheduled for October.

To be eligible businesses must:

  • Be a small or medium-sized business based in the UK;
  • Employ between 5 and 249 people;
  • Have been operational for at least one year;
  • Not be a charity.

Participants must:

  • Be a senior decision maker, such as a Chief Executive, Managing Director, or Operations Director;
  • Have at least one direct report;
  • Commit to completing all sessions.

To find our more, visit our Help to Grow: Management course website or to register visit our Expression of Interest Form.

If you have any questions, please email grow@ntu.ac.uk

  • Notes for editors

    About Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University

    Nottingham Business School (NBS) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a leader in experiential learning and personalisation of business, management and economics education and research, combining academic excellence with positive impact on people, business and society.  NBS has an unrivalled level of engagement with business, public and voluntary organisations. With more than 8,500 students, NBS is also one of UK’s largest business schools.

    NBS is Quadruple+ Accredited by EQUIS, AACSB, EFMD BA for International Business, which are globally recognised hallmarks of excellence and quality for business education. NBS is also accredited by Small Business Charter, providing support and development for SMEs. The school is also a PRME Champion and held up as an exemplar and beacon by the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME).

    About Nottingham Trent University

    Nottingham Trent University (NTU) received the Queens Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2021 for cultural heritage science research. It is the second time that NTU has been bestowed the honour of receiving a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its research, the first being in 2015 for leading-edge research on the safety and security of global citizens.

    The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

    NTU was ranked second best university in the UK in the Uni Compare Top 100 rankings (2021/2022). It was awarded Outstanding Support for Students 2020 (Times Higher Education Awards), University of the Year 2019 (Guardian University Awards, UK Social Mobility Awards), Modern University of the Year 2018 (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide) and University of the Year 2017 (Times Higher Education Awards).

    NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with nearly 39,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.

    Since 2000, NTU has invested £570 million in tools, technology, buildings and facilities.

    NTU is in the UK’s top 10 for number of applications and ranked first for accepted offers (2021 UCAS UG acceptance data) It is also among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was the first UK university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge.

    75% of NTU students go on to graduate-level employment or graduate-entry education / training within fifteen months of graduating (Guardian University Guide 2021).

    NTU is ranked 2nd most sustainable university in the world in the 2022 UI Green Metric University World Rankings (out of more than 900 participating universities).

Published on 17 April 2023
  • Category: Business; Nottingham Business School