"the course actually broke growth down into separate modules."
At Aston Business School, the Help to Grow: Management course is designed to help boost your business’ performance, resilience and long-term growth.
Funded by the government, it is a 12-week leadership course delivered by Aston University’s world-class business school.
In-depth leadership training is provided by business experts both online and for face-to-face sessions.
It combines practical content, eight webinars and four in-person workshops, along with one-to-one support from a business mentor, peer learning and an alumni network.
These are designed to allow you to complete the course while running your business.
The cost of the course is £7,500 but the fee is 90% funded by the Government. This means businesses pay just £750 per applicant.
One of the benefits of completing the Help to Grow: Management course at Aston University is the opportunity to build a network of like-minded business leaders.
Upon completing the course, you gain access to both an Aston Centre for Growth and national alumni network.
This will offer the opportunity to attend exclusive events, continue to network with your peers, experts and prominent business leaders, access new, exclusive learning material and continue to develop your growth action plan.
Nil Chohan is a past participant of Aston University’s Help to Grow: Management course.
He is the Operations and Technical Director at Instinct Hardware, which has been operational for over 30 years.
Nil explained how the course improved the business.
Nil said: “Previous working habits were you come in, you do the day-to-day running of the business and you actually don’t have time to look at it from an outside point of view.
“But having done the course, it’s given me the impetus to always make sure that every week, we set aside a couple of hours and we can actually focus on growth and strategy.”
Highlighting the course, Nil said he has transferred many learning aspects into the business.
He continued: “We always saw growth as just bringing in more sales and increasing turnover, whereas the course actually broke growth down into separate modules.
“One of the modules in particular, which was the module on internationalisation, that really hit
home for me in particular because it’s something we’d never really thought of before.”
Nil went on to say that the course has given him the “confidence” to delegate tasks a lot more.
Recalling what he did before the course, Nil said:
“My mentality was if something needed to be done is to just go and do it but now, we’ve given certain key employees the responsibility to take those things on themselves, make decisions and that helps to free up my time to make decisions with regards to strategy.”
Since completing the course, Nil has seen an improved organisational structure of the business as well as sustainability.
The business applied for and won a KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) Grant with Aston University.
Nil hopes the grant will turn the factory into a modern space where data usage will be “intrinsic” to the success of the business.
The course has also helped Nil to develop a professional relationship with Aston University as he is able to continue receiving advice when he needs it.
To be eligible for the course, you must be a Small or Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) based in the UK, which has been operational for at least one year.
Businesses can be from any industry sector, employing between five and 249 people.
You have to be a decision-maker or member of the business’s senior management team in order to be eligible for the course.
This can be Chief Executive, Finance Director, Operations Director etc.
If the business employs between 10 and 249 people, two participants are eligible for the course.
Previous participants on the Small Business Leadership Programme can also join the course.
To register for the next HtG cohort starting on January 30, 2024, click the link.
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