News | 2 May 2023
Cardiff Metropolitan University’s School of Management has been reaccredited with the prestigious Small Business Charter (SBC) Award for a further five years following recognition of its support for SMEs, stimulating the growth of the Welsh economy.
The Small Business Charter Award honours the UK’s world-class business schools, celebrating those that play an effective role in supporting small businesses, local economies and student entrepreneurship.
In order to achieve the Small Business Charter Award, Cardiff Met’s School of Management underwent a rigorous two-year audit to determine the effectiveness of its business support, entrepreneurship education and engagement with the local economy.
Cardiff Met was praised for its strong profile with local businesses, national and local government and specific business sectors, including the tourism and food industries. The Small Business Charter recognised that the school has academics engaging with the Welsh Government on policy and has collaborated with government departments to create large projects, such as the Circular Economy Innovation Communities, which provides significant SME support.
The school’s 20Twenty Leading Business Growth Programme, which has run for a period of seven years, has been commended as exemplary, having exceeded its targets and engaged with over 700 business leaders since its inception.
Finally, work with the Centre for Entrepreneurship was recognised for supporting a healthy community of student and graduate entrepreneurs, with a strong start-up reputation. Further to this, the Enactus society within the school is growing socially responsible and inspired entrepreneurship among students.
With the award reaccredited, Cardiff Met can now share and develop successful approaches to business support, engagement and student entrepreneurship. The award also allows the school to access government funding to deliver programmes such as Help to Grow – a course for SME business owners who are keen to grow their organisations, improve their leadership skills and access mentoring to give their organisations a competitive edge.
Professor David Brooksbank, Dean of Cardiff School of Management, said: “Having become the first university in Wales to achieve Small Business Charter accreditation, we are immensely proud to have retained the Award for a further five years. “Feedback on our application highlighted the way in which the whole university is united behind our mission to help small businesses across the region and reflected the quality of support Cardiff Met provides to the business community. I am confident that the Small Business Charter will serve as a badge of excellence to open new funding opportunities to support our transformational leadership training programmes aimed at helping Welsh SMEs prosper and grow.”
