Our new series of courses aimed at those thinking about starting a business and those already in business but in need of support are underway. If you are not sure about what it takes to start your own business or the skills required and want to explore this is in a fun and interactive way, then our ‘Is Enterprise for Me’ course is a great place to start.

For those of you a bit further ahead or already in business but needing to sharpen some of your skills, our Business Skills workshop re-creates the world of small business in the training room where you learn by doing.

A variety of other courses including ICT for Enterprise, CV writing, Starting a Fair Trade Business and Fear Free Communication are also being run. For more details, dates and how to book, grab one of our course brochures now!

Do you have an idea you want to develop that will benefit the community?

This scheme will provide training and opportunities to enable young people living in the New Cross Ward to use their creative and entrepreneurial abilities more fully for a social benefit. The voucher will entitle each of the successful applicants to a yearlong package of support which takes each of the recipients from raw idea and into business. Interested? Call now limited places! Sponsored by the New Cross Assembly Mayor's Fund.

The ten young designer makers sharing studio space within Cockpit Arts are heading towards their final showcase where they will exhibit their designs to buyers, the press, industry stakeholders and members of the public in what has already been an exciting ten months.

During this time they have already grabbed their share of the spotlight, by participating in Cockpits Arts Open Studios and when Munira Mirza, London Mayor, Boris Johnson’s Director for Policy for Arts, Culture and Creative Industries visited them to launch the GLA’s 2012 Cultural Skills Fund.

Thirty-three young people aged 18-24 have begun employment with Head for Business as part of the Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee and Future Jobs Fund. Employed in new jobs that would otherwise not exist, they are engaged in a variety of creative and practical roles which are combined with on-going entrepreneurship training over a period of six months.

Ten are employed as Cultural Tour Guides, have branded themselves Culture Snap and are developing walking tours in the South London area targeted at schools and other audiences and who we hope will evolve into a social enterprise at the end of the employment to continue developing tours wider afield. Six are part of dynamic new youth-led social enterprise which will address the problem that public services often fail to meet the needs of young people from under-represented groups or disadvantaged areas in terms of take up of services and impact. Utilising social marketing, social media and a variety of communication strategies, they will act as a conduit between young people and public services. A further fifteen are employed as trainee handypersons working with a range of partners who included Age Concern Lewisham & Southwark, Goldsmiths University, Lewisham College and Trident Business Centre further developing their carpentry, electrics, painting and decorating, plumbing and plastering skills. Two are also employed in the Head for Business office providing administrative support to the programme.

The London Development Agency (LDA) has awarded its 'Improving Enterprise Support to People with Disabilities' project contract to the London Enabled4Enterprise Consortium that inlcudes Head for Business, Leonard Cheshire Disability and Northern Pinetree Trust.

At its core the project recognises that the inclusion of disabled people is vital not only for London's economic success but also for London's stature as a leading world class city of the twenty first century.

The contract objective is to improve the awareness of disability and deliver some solutions for London enterprise agencies to support disabled entrepreneurs more effectively.

The two year plan proposed by the London Enabled4Enterprise Consortium values and prioritises diversity, inclusion and quality and will be driven by an action-research approach. The project will be delivered in a number of phases:

Phase 1

Create a Stakeholder map of enterprise support provision across London.

Conduct a skills audit of 200 pan-London enterprise support agency stakeholders.

Produce a barriers report from the findings.

Establish the Enterprise Consultancy Group (representatives based outside London whose function will be to provide enterprise sector and professional standards oversight).

Establish the Disabled Entrepreneurs Group - (to review and influence disability equality as it relates to all aspects of the project).

Phase 2

Development of training solutions and training toolkits.

Delivery of training.

Establish Enterprise Agency Network (to forge joint working and sharing of good practice).

Phase 3

Refinement of training and toolkits.

Evaluation and dissemination.