- Birmingham Tech CIC hosted Paul Scully MP, Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets, last week
- The Minister got to see why Birmingham is the UK’s regional startup capital
- Mr Scully met with some of the innovative businesses supported by Birmingham Tech, as well as partners including Aston Centre for Growth.
Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets met with members of Aston University’s Centre for Growth team, plus an ambitious business leader who has taken part in a growth programme delivered by the Centre as part of a visit to community interest company, Birmingham Tech, on 3 December.
During the visit, Paul Scully MP met with some of the innovative businesses supported by Birmingham Tech, and partners with whom they work closely, including Aston Centre for Growth and Dan Campsall a business leader who has recently completed Help to Grow: Management with Aston Business School along with some of the innovative business supported by Birmingham tech.
The Centre for Growth, which helps small businesses achieve more, is one of the delivery partners for the government's Help to Grow: Management programme which will support 30,000 leaders and is 90% funded by the government.
The visit included a roundtable discussion, where the Minister heard from local industry leaders on what support is needed for small businesses to recover and further catapult the region’s tech capabilities. Better access to early-stage finance, more scale up support for businesses, and help to enter global markets were among the themes raised.
The region has been crowned the UK’s fastest-growing tech sector, with data from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport forecasting that by 2025, tech in the West Midlands could create an extra 52,000 jobs and boost the national economy by £2.7bn.
This follows research published earlier in 2021, that finds the region has the largest emerging technologies cluster outside London, hosting the largest spread of up-and-coming tech strengths, and the highest number of companies developing new tech of any other UK region.
The study by London Economics* and Glass AI** also shows in Tech & Creative especially, the West Midlands has more companies specialising in digital transformation; gaming; immersive tech; process automation and software development than any other core city region in the UK.
Small Business Minister, Paul Scully, said:
“There is so much creativity and dynamism in the West Midlands and across the UK, but without access to support it’s difficult to fully unlock the entrepreneurial spirit that makes this region great.
“Birmingham has one of the proudest histories of creativity and innovation in the world, from photocopiers and x-rays, to Balti and heavy metal music, a legacy which the dynamic businesses I’ve met today and organisations like Birmingham Tech are taking forward.”
Paula Whitehouse, director of Aston Centre for Growth, said:
“At Aston Centre for Growth we are delighted to see the benefit that the Help to Grow: Management programme is having for our participating small businesses.
“Aston University and the other Small Business Charter business schools delivering the programme in the West Midlands will have a significant impact on upskilling the region’s SMEs in leadership and management skills, putting them in a position to maximise the innovation and tech opportunities supported by key partners such as Birmingham Tech.”
Dan Campsall, director of Insight Warehouse who recently completed Help to Grow: Management with Aston Business School, said:
“It was fantastic to network with some of the region's brightest business minds and decision-makers."
“The Help to Grow program provided a context in which I could step back from the business and take a more strategic perspective. With the support of some great leadership, facilitation and mentoring, I have gained greater clarity on the priority areas of investment for the next stage of our growth."
“After 25 years away from formal education I felt the need to infill some of the gaps I had as a business leader and I was able to accomplish that.”
- Notes to Editors
*London Economics
London Economics is one of Europe’s leading specialist economics and policy consultancies. We advise an international client base on economic and financial analysis, litigation support, policy development and evaluation, business strategy, and regulatory and competition policy. Our technology team consists of highly qualified economists who apply a wide range of analytical tools to tackle complex problems across the business and policy spheres. Our approach combines the use of economic theory and sophisticated quantitative methods with practical know-how and an in-depth understanding of the technology sector. We are committed to providing customer service to world-class standards and take pride in our clients’ success.
**glass.ai
glass.ai has developed AI technology that understands written language at scale, capable of reading millions of corporate sites, news platforms, academic sources, government data and much more to build a comprehensive picture of company activity and industrial clusters. The glass.ai system has already mapped a very large part of the UK economy based on its web presence. For example, it regularly reads the websites of 2 million+ UK businesses across sectors and geographies. As a result of this unique capability, organisations use the system to research emerging sectors and regional clusters of the UK economy and uncover hard to find evidence on businesses, skills and academic capabilities.
About Aston University
Founded in 1895 and a University since 1966, Aston is a long established university led by its three main beneficiaries – students, business and the professions, and our region and society. Aston University is located in Birmingham and at the heart of a vibrant city and the campus houses all the university’s academic, social and accommodation facilities for our students. Professor Alec Cameron is the Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive.
Aston University was named University of the Year 2020 by The Guardian and the University’s full time MBA programme has been ranked in the top 100 in the world in the Economist MBA 2021 ranking. The Aston MBA has been ranked 12th in the UK and 85th in the world.
For media inquiries in relation to this release, contact Sam Cook, Press and Communications Manager, on (+44)744691 0063 or email: s.cook2@aston.ac.uk
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