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Skills and Entrepreneurship
Tips for SMEs: tapping into expertise and support by Andy Colley
London has vast amounts of expertise sitting within its universities, colleges and other education providers. For SMEs, that can mean access to skills, specialist knowledge and innovation support that would be difficult or expensive to develop in-house.
The difficulty is knowing how to access it. Universities can be complicated organisations, funding schemes come and go, and it isn ' t always obvious who to speak to. Here are a few things SMEs can do to make the process easier.
1. Start with the problem, not the course
One of the mistakes businesses make is starting with the solution: We need an AI course or We need management training.
Take a step back. What are you actually trying to achieve? There might be a skills gap, a productivity problem, a new technology to introduce or a product that needs developing.
Once that is clear, there may be several ways an education provider can help. The answer may be a course, a consultancy, a bespoke programme or something more substantial.
2. Find the right door into the university
Universities aren ' t always easy to navigate from the outside. Going through departmental webpages trying to work out which academic to email can quickly become frustrating.
Instead, look for the university ' s business engagement, innovation, enterprise or knowledge exchange team. Give them something useful to work with: the problem; what you want to achieve; your timescale; and an idea of budget. You don ' t need to know which academic discipline holds the answer. Making that connection is their job.
3. Always ask about funding
Don ' t assume you need to pay the full cost yourself.
There is a mixture of national and Londonspecific support available to SMEs. Skills Bootcamps, for example, provide employer-focused training with substantial subsidies available to smaller businesses.
For bigger innovation projects, knowledge transfer partnerships allow businesses to work with universities on a strategic challenge with government support towards the cost.
There are also grants, accelerator programmes and sector-specific schemes. The landscape changes regularly, so ask what is currently available.
4. Don ' t just think about training
This is probably one of the biggest missed opportunities.
Universities aren ' t simply places to send employees on courses. They contain people who have spent years developing expertise in areas such as AI, data, management, psychology, sustainability, law and design.
Academic consultancy might be more useful than training. There may also be opportunities for student projects, collaborative research or support to develop and test a new product.
So, your question should be broader than: what courses do you offer?
Ask instead: what expertise do you have that could help us solve this problem?
5. Start small
Working with a university doesn ' t have to begin with a huge project or complicated funding application.
A workshop, short course or small consultancy project can be a sensible way of seeing whether the relationship works. If it does, build from there.
The best university-business relationships often develop over time. Once people understand the business and what it is trying to achieve, it becomes much easier to spot opportunities to work together.
6. Shop around
Not every university will be right for every business.
Different institutions have different expertise, facilities, industry relationships and approaches to working with SMEs.
A reputable university should also be willing to tell you when it isn ' t the right fit. If a provider is trying to force your problem into an existing course or service simply because that is what it has available, it is probably worth speaking to someone else.
7. Stay connected
You might not have a problem that needs solving today. Six months from now, that could be completely different.
Funding is also often limited and opportunities can have short application windows.
Join relevant universities ' business and innovation mailing lists, follow their business teams and go along to the occasional event. You are much more likely to hear about new funding, training and collaboration opportunities when they appear.
For SMEs, universities can provide access to a much wider pool of expertise. The key is knowing how to use it; start with the problem, find the right team, ask about funding, look beyond conventional training, shop around and stay connected.
Andy Colley is director of innovation at Birkbeck, University of London and a member of LCCI’ s skills committee
www. bbk. ac. uk