The Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme

by Startacus Admin

If social enterprise is your thing, then we reckon that the recently launched Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme is well worth a look.

The programme aims to support anyone who has an idea for a project which can help their local community. It’s not just about new ideas though - if you’re already involved in a social enterprise that is doing just that, this programme will help you grow too.

There are 2 distinct elements to the programme - the Start Up and the Scale Up.

The Start Up is aimed at those people who are at the early stage of developing an idea or project and aims to help support participants turn those ideas and projects into a tangible reality.

The Scale Up on the other hand is geared at established organisations of at least a year old who wish to take their ideas to the next level and increase the social impact that they have.

The Start Up programme will see participants covering everything from initially Setting up a Social Enterprise through to Marketing whilst the Scale Up programme will cover topics such as Strategies for Growth and Sustainability through to Staff Development.

Both elements will see winning entries receiving a fully funded 14 day learning programme, a grant of £4k or £15k respectively as well as hands on mentoring and support from Lloyds and Bank of Scotland employees. The programme will be running in 12 locations across the UK and you’ll need to be able to travel to one of these if you’d like to take part. So then, in no particular order - those locations are:

Bristol, Cornwall, Edinburgh, Ipswich, Hampshire, Leeds, Liverpool & Wigan, London, Middlesbrough, Plymouth, Salford and West Midlands.

If you’re thinking about applying, you’d do well first of all to head to one of the upcoming taster sessions which are taking place during February and March at these very locations. The taster sessions are designed to give you a much deeper insight into the programme, what it can offer, what’s expected in order to help you decide if it’s right for you.

To book a place at a taster session, simply visit the SSE website.

Applications for the programme are open until 3rd April 2014 and you can apply directly to the location where you would prefer to do your training via the following link.  Also check out #Applyif

All in all, this is a great initiative and it’s one which is certainly worth applying for if you fit the bill. Good luck to any of you who do!

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• #funding
• #mentoring
• #social entrepreneur

Published on: 3rd February 2014