SME-Gap project launch event at Manchester Town Hall

On Thursday 26 January, the Centre for Enterprise at Manchester Met and the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce officially launched the project ‘Growing Apprenticeship Partnerships for SMEs’ (SME GAP) by holding its first major event to improve the awareness of the availability and benefits of apprenticeship provision to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

The event at Manchester Town Hall was attended by over 70 businesses and included speakers from Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, New Economy, Manchester Metropolitan University and SMEs including Bliss, Shaping Cloud, as well as a number of apprentices. The event was the first of a series of events to disseminate opportunities to SMEs and also to hear from them how agencies involved in supporting businesses and delivering apprenticeship provision can improve their campaigns and delivery, removing barriers to their participation. 

The SME GAP project is funded by the ERASMUS+ programme and Manchester Met and the Chamber will work with partner organisations in Spain and Austria to identify the barriers SMEs face and develop a series of tools to help SMEs engage better with apprenticeship programmes and increase the numbers of SMEs taking on an apprentice.

The photo shows Manchester Metropolitan University staff, the full international team and delegates at our Manchester Town Hall Event.