Kyle Liston from Baked Uprising with Lord Mayor Cr Nuatali Nelmes . Baked Uprising have established new Sourdough making classes , which are promoted to tourists traveling to Newcastle .
content and assessments , the difficulty in the educators tailoring content due to student industry diversity and the free offering , which some representatives felt affected the value placed on the program by the participants .
“ It felt like it was a bit too late . A lot of businesses were already back at work . Some had lost staff so they were even busier working in the business rather than on the business . The feedback we got was that we don ’ t have time to do this .” – RTO Program Manager
“ Feedback that we received indicated that people wanted to learn things that they could put into practice straight away , they didn ’ t want to have to complete assignments ” – RTO Program Manager
Learnings for Economic Development Practitioners : Recognising that the initial broad program had not delivered outcomes to the scale of initial expectations , the City of Newcastle pivoted the second offering to be more tailored and provide individualised support for local businesses . The centrepiece of the second phase was a Tourism Product Mentoring program . Research in the City
of Newcastle ’ s Destination Management Plan identified that Newcastle had a significant shortage in bookable tourism product . The City of Newcastle partnered with a registered training organisation to deliver the
Tourism Product Development Program .
The strength of this initiative , which cost less than $ 100,000 , coupled with the learnings from the initial broad components of the Local Online Training Program , emphasise how targeted local government assistance , in partnership with industry , can address local market gaps .
The program provided 15 local businesses , selected through an EOI process , with access to professional mentors . These mentors provided advice on how to develop , promote and sell tourism products and experiences to a wider market . Since commencement , the program has seen a significant number of new bookable tourism products be established in Newcastle , resulting in job creation and local business expansion . The program has been highly successful .
The strength of this initiative , which cost less than $ 100,000 , coupled with the learnings from the initial broad components of the Local Online Training Program , emphasise how targeted local government assistance , in partnership with industry , can address local market gaps .
COMMUNITY GRANTS
Overview : The Community Grant Program was established to provide financial and in-kind support to mobilise assistance for nongovernment organisations , not-for-profits , charities and community groups to scale and respond to community need . The program was delivered in two phases . The first phase of the Program was the Rapid Response Grant program that was designed to free up early urgent funds for highly vulnerable members of the community .
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