With the world of business support being a constantly moving and evolving environment it is organisations such as Genesis Training Solutions Limited who ensure that business support organisations can navigate the ever changing landscape effectively.
Genesis is a long standing and well respected supporter and training facilitator within the world of business support and has been an important partner of SFEDI Awards for many years delivering a wide range of qualifications throughout the UK. Since joining the SFEDI Awards network, Genesis has worked with numerous organisations that provide business support, advice and mentoring.
Anne Hames, Managing Director of Genesis Training Solutions, had this to say, ‘I believe that the high level of recommendations and repeat business is due to the importance now being placed on the success of the SME sector in terms of creating sustainable employment and therefore, when looking for help, SME’s are keen to ensure that they access this from professionally qualified advisors, rather than relying on a friend, family member or “self styled expert”.
Genesis often works with organisations to enable all of their advisors to gain Business Support accreditations. Additionally, through offering CPD workshops and bi-annual observations of practice, we help them to update advisors’ skills and ensure that their CPD portfolios are maintained appropriately.’
Nic Preston, CEO of SFEDI Awards, had this to say,‘It is only through our partnerships with professional organisations such as Genesis that we are able to provide qualifications to the business support industry in order to promote the need for highly skilled individuals who provide advice services to micro and SME businesses. Genesis has taken on the challenge of tackling the ever changing landscape of business support and it is great to see the continued impact they have within the marketplace offering high quality training solutions.’
One such organisation is E Factor Limited, based in North East Lincolnshire which was established as a social enterprise delivering business support in 2008 – at the time when Business Link’s provision became website support only and the country was entering recession.
With approximately half of the adults in North East Lincolnshire employed by small businesses, it was clear that this vital sector needed support if they were to survive and grow – but all the support was falling away. E Factor Limited understood that the services they offered had to be different from what had been available through Business Link and that it was critical that they offered appropriate, relevant support for people who were starting a business as well as assisting SME’s to survive and grow in a very challenging economic climate.
The company also understood that it needed to be fully contributing to the economic growth culture of North East Lincolnshire and that becoming a social enterprise was the most positive and feasible way forward.
Mark Webb, Managing Director of E Factor Limited, commented:
‘Business support is generally offered by economic development departments within local councils and this means that, very often, advice is provided by people who haven’t been in business, therefore making it difficult for them to understand the challenges SME’s and sole traders face. We recruited a team with relevant experience. We knew that the task we had taken on was huge – there are over 6000 local businesses in the area and in order to offer meaningful support, we had to ensure that our service was tailored to client need, rather than being prescriptive. We also understood that our advisors must have the skills, ability and tools which they could use to talk to business owners to establish their needs – we recognise that every business is different and whilst many share similar challenges, our approach is very client focused and based on the individual need. Our ethos is very much that once we have identified what is required, our advisors will assist clients to find viable and realistic solutions.
We quickly realised that businesses were asking “Why should we choose you? Why should we discuss our business needs and challenges with you?” It was at this point that we started to research the learning our advisors needed to deliver appropriate support. Our research ultimately highlighted SFEDI Awards qualifications as the most relevant and we identified Genesis Training Solutions Limited as our local delivery partner. We were particularly pleased that the learning programmes are very much aligned to the values of our organisation and focused, not just on academic and theoretical qualifications, but also on “real life” delivery.
Genesis has worked with us now for a number of years, ensuring all of our advisors are qualified with at least two of them opting for a social enterprise specialism. The SFEDI Awards qualifications have helped our advisors to gain confidence and become more effective in delivering the really meaningful support that is so much needed by the SME sector. Our team has an excellent grasp of the tools available to them and are confident in explaining them to our clients as well as being competent in demonstrating their usefulness.
Being SFEDI Awards accredited means that our clients also have more confidence in the support provided by our advisors. Our reputation as a Business Support organisation has been greatly enhanced and it has become a requirement that any advisor joining the E Factor Limited team is SFEDI Awards qualified, either prior to joining us or as part of their training and development.
As with all training and development, the learning never stops and, through our ongoing partnership with Genesis Training Solutions Limited, the CPD for our advisors has continued. We recognise this as being essential to ensuring that the service we provide is always up to date and that our people are always at their best.’
If you would like more information about the range of SFEDI Awards programmes that are available via Genesis Training Solutions Limited, please email: [email protected] or telephone us on 01472 698819
You can find further information about the business and enterprise support qualifications available from SFEDI Awards by seeing our website here.