Training
There are a number of different training services that SEEM provide including:
Steps to Social Enterprise
A 3 day course covering introduction to social enterprise, legal structures and governance and finance for social enterprise. Each day can be booked individually or receive a 10% discount for booking 2 days and 15% discount for booking all 3.
Day 1 – a workshop exploring the practicalities of starting a social enterprise that will give you the best start to your new social business idea.
Day 2 – learning how choosing the right legal structure is critical to the success of your social enterprise, and its impact on trade and finance
Day 3 – a workshop aimed at helping you to understand and explore non-grant finance
For more details on our current Steps to Social Enterprise training, please visit the events section of this site.
FAIR – Financial Awareness and Investment Readiness
This programme aims to increase the quality and quantity of business support available to social enterprises in the East Midlands. Evidence suggests that there are not enough advisers available in the East Midlands that are able to offer high quality business support to social enterprises.
This project delivers four outcomes through a series of linked activities.
- Financial Awareness and Investment Readiness Programme - the commissioning, design and development of the Core Learning programme outcome: 50 infrastructure bodies with increased awareness of a diverse range of income sources
- Accreditation process and assessment – towards the SFEDI standards required by emda’s brokerage platform – outcome: 10 quality assured business advisers per year x three years
- Business Adviser Network – developing a network for business advisers to share good practice and facilitate continuing professional development and capacity building – outcome 50 members at start up and 10% increase per year
- Finance Supply Group Product promotion – providing an opportunity for those organisations that offer non-grant finance to social enterprises to promote their products and to inform business advisers what resources are available and how social enterprises can access them – outcome: increase take up on non-grant finance by social enterprises by 15 per year x three years
Voluntary Sector infrastructure organisations have high levels of access to aspiring social enterprises but have not traditionally possessed the required business skills to assist them to become less dependent on grant funding.
Evidence collected by SEEM and others suggests that the biggest obstacle for social enterprises seeking to grow is that they are not “investment ready”. This is defined in our Regional Investment Strategy as:
- A cultural aversion to risk
- Being unable to demonstrate financial as well as social returns
- Having a skills gap – not having the skills to manage trading activities
The FAIR programme addresses these barriers by increasing the number of advisers available to help social enterprises and to build the capacity of infrastructure organisations to indirectly grow the social enterprises themselves. The aim is for the businesses to become more financially successful and autonomous.
For more details of the FAIR programme, please contact SEEM on 0115 871 4760.