Digital High Street Skills 100% funded

24th September 2014

Up-skilling of UK's Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMEs) will enable them to drive forward an estimated £18.

8 billion of turnover growth. Pilot phase of the project aims to train 3000 SME business owners and staff across the country by the end of 2014. Digital High Street Skills is a National Skills Academy for Retail (NSAR) programme, developed and delivered in partnership with the Association of Town and City Management (ATCM).The programme was launched at the Future High Street Summit at the National Space Centre in Leicester last week. The Digital High Street Skills Project will use this technology to deliver a modular series of webinars, face-to-face presentations and workshop events; NSAR and ATCM will enlist skills trainers to deliver workshops and webinars across 75 locations in England one of which will be The Source Skills Academy. Jane Rexworthy, Head of the National Skills Academy for Retail stated 'This educational programme will help small businesses to establish or enhance their online retail offer, while also enabling those taking part to learn digital skills and business techniques that will improve their existing physical business. The programme will show how multi-channel retailing is relevant to every size of business, and why small businesses need to offer it if they want to be able to match the expectations of modern customers in today's mobile-digital age.' The Digital High Street Skills suite of programmes has been developed with the help of the Employer Ownership Fund. Through the Employer Ownership Fund, the National Skills Academy for Retail can offer training and mentoring for small retail businesses at substantially reduced rates. The Fund is accessible to all retail businesses with fewer than 250 employees in England and is available until the end of July 2014. Retail and Customer Service Trainer at The Source Skills Academy, Paula Windle, is excited to begin delivering the programme and said 'I am absolutely delighted to be able to offer the Digital High Street Skills programme to businesses in Yorkshire and the surrounding areas. It will provide so many opportunities for those businesses that, for what ever reason, haven't yet engaged their customers through a digital platform. Digital High Street Skills is unique in that the content is easy to digest, whilst being a potential game changer for SMEs wanting to step into the mobile digital age.' For more information on dates and availability please contact Tom Lindop on 07711 595 339 or email tom.lindop@thesourceacademy.co.uk