A unique collaborative project between the West Midlands Technology Network (WMTN) and Coventry University’s School of Lifelong Learning will provide financial support to eligible SMEs and individuals employed in SMEs to help them get direct access to specialist skills and facilities in universities, colleges and technology centres in order to improve their competitiveness and profitability.

The funding from the WMTN can provide £1,000 financial support for business owners and employees to achieve Certificate of Lifelong Learning awards in management, marketing and information technology.

The awards will be offered by the University’s School of Lifelong Learning both in classroom and internet E-learning formats.

The HE based Management and Business Technology courses include everything from specialist management skills to web design skills and the businesses that qualify for this new training initiative could benefit from those extra skills obtained by the workforce.  Day release courses will be offered on selected courses from September.

Becketts Food Ltd, which is based on Aldermans Green industrial estate in Coventry, is one of the companies that will be taking advantage of the funding offer.

Arthur Neale from Becketts Food had some initial training on The Community Online.net, an online training initiative which was set up by the School of Lifelong Learning at Coventry University. After successfully completing the course, he is now encouraging a number of his staff onto the WMTN Project. He said:  “Obviously training initiatives like this are vital to keep a small business competitive and giving staff the opportunity to learn and gain new skills has to be a good thing. The financial support from WMTN is so important because it is not the kind of initiative we could easily fund ourselves.

“The training packages organised by Coventry University are well thought out and because there is an emphasis on e-learning, a lot of the training can be done on site. It is really a win, win situation.”

The staff members at Becketts Food will be taking the word processing and spreadsheet course. Each course equates to 40 higher education credits. On successful completion the individual will be awarded a Certificate of Lifelong Learning by the School of Lifelong Learning at Coventry University.

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