4 August 2005

Bright future for business training on the West Coast

The Enterprise Training Programme, one of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s key initiatives, will now be managed on the West Coast by The West Coast Development Trust and is set to benefit from additional funding.

Government funding for the Enterprise Training’s suite of business and information services on the Coast will approach $250,000 during 2005-06. This amount will be further leveraged by The Development Trust’s continuing contribution to training and development of West Coast businesses.

The Enterprise Training Programme is designed to help small to medium enterprises grow their businesses. It started in Greymouth as BIZ Training in July 2001, with workshops initially provided by the Canterbury Development Corporation. The Development Trust became involved in September 2003 and since then they have doubled the number of workshops, expanded the number of locations and provided training to more than 600 West Coast businesses.

The programme, which is free for participants, delivers nearly 60 three-hour workshops a year in Karamea, Reefton, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitika and Franz Josef. Topics include business planning, sales and marketing, accounting, financial management and e-commerce as well as specialised High Growth Programmes. Following attendance at workshops, businesses can request follow-up coaching to apply skills learned directly to their workplace.

The Development Trust also provides confidential, individual business mentoring and. Where necessary, referral to other training and business assistance programmes.

Michael Trousselot, chief executive of The Development Trust, is encouraged by what the Enterprise Training Programme has achieved to date and is very positive about its future. “According to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the national average for training workshop attendance is three sessions per client – on the Coast many of our businesses have attended significantly more than that. Dozens of businesses have received confidential mentoring and others have begun the application process to The Development Trust for business development funding. We hope that more follow this pathway.”

ENDS

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