|2nd Round Approved DPs|

Equal Enterprise Scotland DP

Objectives
The Development partnership, with core partners (Kilmarnock college/Clackmannanshire Council/Business Enterprise Scotland) from the first round have developed a regional framework to boost entrepreneurial potential, by engaging new strategic partners in the process including Scottish Enterprise National, Scottish Further Education Unit, Scottish Chambers of Commerce and The Prince’s Scottish Young Business Trust.

Working within the principles of EQUAL and the pillar of Entrepreneurship, the DP will develop a hub and spoke model to stimulate and support entrepreneurial dynamism by targeting those most at risk of exclusion (young people, older people, disabled and rural excluded) to access mainstream business support services and support Framework for Economic Development priority of infrastructure and learning skills.

Target Groups
Young people, older people, disabled and rurally excluded

Pilot Projects and Mainstreaming Outcomes
 

Business Enterprise Scotland Network
Projects piloted by BES aimed at increasing access to enterprise opportunities.  Projects were undertaken by BES’ members and extended network. These include;

Stirling Enterprise Park delivered 16 rural road shows in Stirlingshire.  As well as their own business support services, the road shows included other support agencies, such as SEERAD, LearnDirect, Customs and Excise, Visit Scotland and public and private sector support agencies.

Stirling Enterprise has made an application for ERDF funding for a 3 year project starting in April 2008.  This project is mainly for e-commerce/IT/business growth support to SMEs, but includes a programme of rural road shows similar to those piloted under Equal.

Midlothian Enterprise Trust engaged the private sector in enterprise education.  40 local business people were recruited to act as mentors for the 5^th and 6^th year students taking part in the Business Experience.  The Business Experience was also adapted/delivered for transnational partners and has been exported into a number of other local authority areas.
Midlothian Enterprise Trust’s success in running the Business Experience in Midlothian schools has influenced other 2 other Councils (Borders & East Lothian) to fund the 2 day event in their enterprise education programme.  The engagement of mentors from the local business community is now an established part of the process

Glasgow Business Services Tailored Marketing provided additional sales & marketing support to 40 potential start ups from disadvantaged areas and background.  Confidence building through group work and business adviser one to one support featured strongly in this project.
Business Enterprise Scotland has now mainstreamed the Best Practice Forums. The model has been enhanced by the formation of two separate working groups.  One is the BG Contractors Forum, made up of senior staff, involved in the delivery of Business Gateway contracts.  This group was formed to share best practice, help maintain consistency and standards and make suggestions of where improvements in the BG processes could be made.  The other group is made up of Chief Executives who are looking at innovation and areas of co-operation to augment and enhance business support

Lanarkshire Enterprise Services was able to make the case for an integrated approach to rural business support. 
Lanarkshire Enterprise Services is now a member of the newly formed South Lanarkshire Rural Partnership Leader Local Action Group.  This partnership has submitted an application to Leader 2007 2013, which includes the elements of collaboration, grass roots development and implementation and asset based development.  These elements were all advocated in the ‘Integrated Support to Rural Business’ disseminated at the Tailored Enterprise Solutions in September and in submissions made in the consultation period for the Scottish Rural Development Programme. 

Gordon Rural Action focussed its project on the creation of a learning network to assist individuals and organisations to acquire/transfer/develop skills to support the sustainability of social enterprises in Aberdeenshire.
The project undertaken has developed significantly since the tranche of Equal support.  In Aberdeenshire, CVS mainstreamed elements of the Networking of Social Enterprises – e newsletters and geographic forums.  The Network Advisory Group, established by GRA, is reluctant to let go of their grouping and are currently looking at themed networking and the establishment of a Development Trust to address the issue of lack of affordable office space in Inverurie.  The Aberdeenshire Social Work Department has made a commitment to support a study into how best peer support can be provided for individuals and board members in social enterprises.

Grampian Opportunities focussed on the recruitment of 40 volunteers, with varying levels of disability, providing them with ICT skills and giving them the opportunity for work experience or self employment through volunteering.  Workshops were also run by local Business Gateway on self employment as an option.Grampian Opportunities are pursuing further funding through the Lottery, Health Board and Council to provide mentoring support for future volunteers who have mental health issues 

Transnational Activity - Well matched partners in the Transnational Partnership enabled the Scottish partners to make a significant contribution of expertise, experience and good practice to inform the Czech DP of the development of SME support services. Also, collaboration between Colleges, led to students from Scotland and the Netherlands taking part in a specially adapted Business Experience at Clusius College in Hoorn.

Scottish Chambers of Commerce - Young Chamber Project
The Young Chamber Initiative was launched by the Ayrshire Chamber aiming to encourage entrepreneurship among young schoolchildren ultimately by incorporating enterprise skills development into school curriculum. The pilot was developed from the recommendations of a survey among young entrepreneurs on how to improve business support services in Scotland.

The pilot has now been evaluated and its success has prompted the Scottish Government to approve a roll out of the project. This will occur in January 2008, initially in Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Scottish Chambers of Commerce - Network Support for New Entrepreneurs Project
As part of the Young Chamber Initiative, mentioned above a number of young people who had, or were about to start a new business were questioned. They noted the value of peer support in the first two years of operation. They also suggested that whilst this type of support was available within the Chamber of Commerce network in many cases it did not fully comply with the needs of younger people. To address this issue pilot projects have been launched in Glasgow and Aberdeen.  Under these peer support and networking events have been held targeted directly at this client group. A preliminary evaluation of the events to date has shown them to be extremely useful and attractive to young people in business. The initiative will be rolled out to additional Chambers in the new year

Scottish Chambers of Commerce - SME engagement in national policy Project
Scottish Chambers of commerce conducted a major survey across the small business community.  This showed that many SMEs believed that it was very difficult, or indeed impossible, for them to get their views across to national policy makers. Under the Equal project Scottish Chambers of Commerce initially held a number of focus groups. Following from these a process involving regular, local meetings of owners of SMEs has been implemented. The views emerged from the meetings were then incorporated into formal publications, prepared and issued by Scottish Chambers of Commerce. The first one of these was DELIVERING for SCOTLAND which identified five areas that the small business community believed should feature in national policy determination. Work is currently being carried out on each of these and a report on skills will be published in the new year with others to follow on a regular basis.

The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust
PSYBT’s participation in the Equal Enterprise Scotland Development Partnership was driven by one of the focus areas from the strategic review. The project has covered a range of activities over the last 2 years but all have been directed towards an aim to improve our model of support so that any young person with a business idea can access the particular help they need to research, plan, set up and grow their own business.

Across Scotland PSYBT regions have developed local network maps highlighting those organisations that already actively engage with the target group of disadvantaged young people. These maps have served to identify where relationships need to be established or strengthened and provided the basis of an action plan of awareness raising meetings and events. Work will continue to identify Regional Ambassadors from the pool of previously supported clients who can help to make and maintain such links. Network maps have been adopted as a generic part of Regional Plans developed each year by each PSYBT Region across Scotland

The contact details of the Lead Partner are listed below:

Lead Partner:              Kilmarnock College
Person to Contact:       Margaret McCready
Telephone:                  01563 523501 (4077)
Email:                         mccreadym@kilmarnock.ac.uk
Website:                     www.equalenterprisescotland.org