One of the more overlooked measures announced in this week's UK budget was a £200m to fund to replace the Small Business Leadership Programme, helping UK business schools support 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the next three years.
The Help to Grow initiative is essentially a mini-MBA for small business leaders and will be heavily subsidised, to the tune of 90% - so businesses will only pay around £750 of the £7,5000 course costs.
It was piloted in England during the second half of last year - with around 2,000 firms completing it - and will now be rolled out across the UK, targeting 8,000 SMEs in the first year and 30,000 in total over the next three years.
Robert MacIntosh, professor of strategic management at the Edinburgh Business School - and also chair of the Chartered Association of Business Schools - said the change was a huge boost for Scottish SMEs.
"Smaller businesses are a much bigger part of the economy than most people realise, so they will be crucial to the recovery effort.
"They tend to find it harder to source and afford leadership and management development opportunities, with lower staffing levels meaning they have less flexibility, a smaller likelihood of formal development and more pressure on management time.
“Historically, MBA and other degree programmes have often been seen as the preserve of large corporates, so this new programme represents a shorter, more flexible way of accessing high quality development for small business leaders," explained MacIntosh.
"This is obviously big news for businesses and for business schools across the UK - specifically for Scottish SMEs, this is a significant new opportunity to develop management skills and knowledge that will help them steer and grow their businesses over the next few years.”
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