Enterprising Ashfield
Sutton in Ashfield
Project summary
A project to support businesses in Sutton and Kirkby and up skill residents and employees through a range of free courses, guidance and university expertise.
Project updates
The project is currently live and underway!
In detail
Nottingham Trent University is delivering the Enterprising Ashfield project as part of Ashfield District Council’s successful Towns Deal bid. The project provides businesses with direct access to university expertise and facilities, and support for local residents and employees to enhance their skills.
Enterprising Ashfield is a four-year programme that started in 2022 that is helping to bridge the skills gap in Ashfield and deliver growth, innovation, and new skills. The programme is estimated to boost the local economy by £19 million over the next 10 years. It is available to businesses, residents, and employees within the Kirkby in Ashfield and Sutton in Ashfield Towns Deal area.
Support available includes:
- Free courses – whether that’s supporting individuals to upskill, boosting their CVs, or running a bespoke course for a group of employees to plug a skills gap
- Start-up grant of £1,000 – one-to-one advice and workshops to help individuals get their new business ideas off the ground
- Growth grant of up to £1,500 – whether you’re a new business looking to develop or an experienced business owner looking to grow further, our one-to-one mentoring and growth grant can help
- Support to innovate – for businesses looking to develop new products or processes, our R&D team can work with you to identify your needs and offer direct access to university expertise and facilities
- Talent grant of up to £2,500 – free advice and support to help attract high calibre applicants and successfully recruit for graduate positions in your business
- Apprenticeships – our team can work with you to upskill your employees to take up higher level skills through our apprenticeship programme.
Email the team at Nottingham Trent University to learn more about Enterprising Ashfield at: enterprisingashfield@ntu.ac.uk
To date the Enterprising Ashfield has delivered more than 240 free short courses and upskilled over 1,000 Ashfield residents. Over 225 residents have already completed the HeadStart programme and received the grant to get them started and over 170 businesses have worked with the Enterprising Ashfield team.
The Enterprising Ashfield project will run until September 2026.
