The University of Portsmouth celebrated with Isle of Wight SME business leaders who have completed the university’s ‘Business Boost’ and ‘Help to Grow: Management Course’. Those present at the event at Quay Arts Centre in Newport, were joined on Tuesday by Professor Jeremy Howells Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and External Relations) at the university and Councillor Julie Jones-Evans from Isle of Wight Council who each gave a short speech on the partnership. The university’s Business Support Programmes manager Dan Lodge greeted graduates with a warm welcome and a congratulatory speech – and of course, presented them with their official certificates of completion. The ‘Business Boost’ was a dedicated, bespoke and free programme specifically created for businesses to improve productivity and support their business resilience and growth – funded by the Isle of Wight Council and the European Regional Development Fund. The ‘Help to Grow Management Course’ is a fully funded programme, designed and delivered by entrepreneurs and industry experts. This programme is accredited by the Small Business Charter and is supported by the Department for Business and Trade and Rishi Sunak. Working with Isle of Wight Council, the University of Portsmouth’s Business Support Programmes team have been delivering support to Island SMEs since May 2022. Dan Lodge, said:
“It was wonderful to celebrate the success of these SME business leaders, completing the ‘Business Boost’ and ‘Help to Grow’ programmes. We are pleased to see that we’ve given business support to more than 60 island SMEs so far – and we’re still running!”
