A new £2.5 million programme to support entrepreneurship in the Highlands and Islands is set to go ahead.
The board of development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) recently approved the programme, which will build on the success of previous entrepreneurship support provided by the organisation for more than 10 years.
A key element of the three-year programme will be an “entrepreneurial academy,” which will be open to all businesses in the area irrespective of their size.
The academy will not have one geographical base, but its activities will be spread across the region, through a series of events in different areas and online provision.
The programme will involve four levels of provision ranging from inspiration lectures for those interested in setting up a business to executive entrepreneurship for business leaders looking to scale-up.
The inspiration lectures will “maximise the presence of visiting international speakers in the region,” by providing one to two hour sessions for budding entrepreneurs and the public.
Executive entrepreneurship includes master classes and international entrepreneurial specialist courses and events such as the Entrepreneurial Development Programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.
In between levels include the entrepreneurial academy, new product development workshops and the Scotland Can Do SCALE programme.
Donna Chisholm, HIE’s regional head of sectors, innovation and programmes, said she was “absolutely delighted” the ambitious programme, which will be delivered with a number of partner agencies, including Scottish Enterprise had been given the go-ahead.
She added it would continue to build on initiatives such as the recently completed “virtual accelerator” for businesses across the region. Around 40 fledgling companies took part in the intensive three-month pilot, which concluded earlier this month, and was delivered mainly through a mixture of online and telephone contact with course leaders to overcome the area’s geographical challenges.
Ms Chisholm said: “That programme was a good indicator of what people need and what can be achieved and it has given us a lot of learning.
“Through the new initiative we are going to be reaching a wider group of entrepreneurs than ever before in the area.
“It’s often said that entrepreneurship is a ‘lonely process’ and that can be particularly the case in a region like ours with a dispersed population.”
She added that the continuing long-standing relationship between HIE and MIT was and important element of the new initiative.
