Training & apprenticeships
Moving online works for business course An inspirational business course forced to reinvent itself as a virtual event in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has attracted its biggest ever audience. PopUp Business School, which has helped scores of people across Kent start up on their own, set up a free, week-long online event that saw 100-plus would-be entrepreneurs each day log in from home to learn how to set up in business. The five day course, which encourages people to make money by doing something they love, takes a unique ‘no red tape’ approach to the challenge of setting up a new business – with considerable success. The unique approach helped nearly 3,000 people develop new business skills in 2019. “We were delighted with the response to our first online event,” said PopUp Business School Chief Operations Officer Henry Nicholson. “We have run a number of successful events in various towns across Kent over the years, but this was the biggest ever. “It worked really well, too. Within the first two days
people were making great progress and some were already making sales within the group and learning the skills they need to start out on their own.” One PopUp success story is Faversham’s Joanna Van Blommestein, who now trades as The Bra Boss of Kent and set up in business after a “life changing” week on a course at Westwood Cross in Thanet. Joanna, who kept costs down by setting up in a summer house in her garden, said the advice to “start small, get help from friends and contacts and don’t run up big debts” was spot on. PopUp’s philosophy is firmly against people borrowing large amounts of money or worrying too much about business plans, advice which proved invaluable during the Covid-19 pandemic. “If I had borrowed lots of money, I would have been struggling to pay my debts by now,” Joanna explained. “Because I set things up simply, I coped with the crisis and now the lockdown is easing I am fully booked for several
› Joanna shows off her fitting room weeks ahead.” In 2019, PopUp helped 967 new businesses start up as a result of organising 37 courses across the country – all free, thanks to sponsorship by local support programmes. Successes range from swimming coaching to cake making and from bookkeeping to fitness training. Research shows that in 2019, PopUp’s 37 UK events contributed £19.2m to the local economy, including benefits savings of nearly £8m as people turned their hobbies and interests into business ventures. The online PopUp offered sessions on all aspects of business, from sales, social media and networking through to setting up a free website and marketing, as well as taxation and business structure. It was part of an £8.6m, cross-channel project called Increase Valorisation Sociale (Increase VS), which is using European cash to deliver free workshops aimed at kick-starting small businesses and creating jobs.
More online courses are planned – see https://events.popupbusinessschool.co.uk/events
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The high-profile launch of the Centre for Corporate Governance represents an important milestone, providing an opportunity to bring together a range of stakeholders with a common interest in governance, stewardship and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. At the launch, chair of the Institute of Directors (IoD), Charlotte Valeur, said: “By acting as a multistakeholder and inclusive hub for discussion of corporate governance issues, we aim to enhance not only the expertise and professionalism of IoD members, but also the wider business community, policy-makers and the general public.” The launch highlighted the key issue of the moment: Does the global pandemic signal an enduring shift in corporate governance? It has created unprecedented challenges for boards of directors, but despite this, the IoD believes circumstances may provide board members with an opportunity to build trust, professionalism and legitimacy in respect of their role in society. In surveys, we found that 74% of our members believed that good governance lay at the heart of a
high-performance career as a director. In addition, 77% believed the chances of a business’s longterm survival were improved by adopting good governance practices. Equally 77% of IoD members favoured the introduction of an industry led code of conduct for directors, similar to those in other professions such as accountancy, medicine and law. This would sit alongside existing legal and regulatory duties and serve to improve a strong ethos within business for responsible behaviour and ethical decision-making. A majority of IoD members also felt the time was right to introduce minimum requirements for directors, in terms of knowledge and professional training. These measures could represent a positive, governance-enhancing response from policy makers to the demands of the current crisis. Despite the challenges of the current environment, the centre has already begun working in groups focusing on sustainable capitalism, stakeholder governance and the impact of emerging technologies on corporate governance. They have been meeting via video conferencing for weeks and although the context of their analysis has been fundamentally
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impacted by the pandemic, these topics remain key issues for the future of corporate governance. We shall also be launching new working groups on other key governance and ESG issues. Over the coming months, we will offer opportunities to both IoD members and the wider community of leaders and business executives across Kent, Surrey and Sussex, to engage with the working groups through webinars, expert witness sessions and surveys. For further information, email Carum Basra, corporate governance policy adviser at the centre (carum.basra@iod.com).
CONTACT Faisal Khan, chair of the IoD South
