Unveiling a new programme to support businesses and students across the UK

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20/09/2019

This year has not been an easy one for UK businesses. Worries about the outcome of Brexit negotiations, a weakening currency and a dampened macroeconomic outlook have caused many firms to hold back on key investment decisions.

This was confirmed by our latest SME Health Check Index, which showed levels of business confidence across the UK had fallen to the lowest level in 12 months.

Yet we know it’s not just the wider economic conditions that present challenges for businesses. Each individual enterprise has its own unique obstacles, whether that’s building brand awareness, honing a competitive advantage, selling into new markets or anything in between.

As a Bank with a long history of helping businesses to thrive amid difficult times, we are always looking at new ways to extend our support for SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises).

With this in mind, we’ve launched a new academic programme to help spur their growth, while simultaneously providing students across the North of England and Scotland with a unique opportunity to gain new skills and boost their employability.

In collaboration with leading UK universities, we've launched the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Greenhouse Programme - an initiative which brings together SMEs with post-graduate business students, who work together to help our customers overcome challenges and seize opportunities.

Greenhouse in action

The concept is simple – our customers submit a statement describing an opportunity or challenge they would like to overcome, leverage or explore as a business, and a group of students is then allocated to work with them to help.

Students meet with the business’ decision makers at their university campus for a series of workshops, starting a process of identifying the best path forward. This culminates in the creation of a number of recommendations within a final report, that the students present to the company four weeks later, with a suggested approach.

The programme helps both groups, with Masters students gaining first-hand insights into the day-to-day running of an active company, equipping them with useful insights for their future business careers, and customers who can leverage fresh insights.

The programme’s pilot event was held in 2018 at The University of Stirling, but has now expanded across the UK to a larger list of universities, including Strathclyde Business School (pictured right and above), Sheffield Hallam University, (pictured below) and Heriot Watt University. The University of Leeds will host the programme in early 2020, as well as Aston University, and there’s more to come.

Sue Douthwaite, Director of Small and Medium Business at Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, said: “We’re thrilled to be facilitating this service through the Greenhouse Programme that has benefits and learnings for both students and local SMEs.

“It allows our SME customers to get focused, comprehensive and tangible business support, by pooling the resources of talented MBA students, to help them think outside of the box, while simultaneously giving students valuable and transferable skills. We look forward to hosting more Greenhouse events as we actively expand the footprint of the programme.”

Cynthia Halatyn, MBA student at Strathclyde Business School, said: “I was able to apply all my MBA learning to holistically solving a real-time business problem, seeing the solutions that my team and I came up with add value to the organisation.

“I now feel more confident in my ambitions to be an entrepreneur since being part of the programme and would encourage students to seize this opportunity with both hands.”

Find out more

If you are a Clydesdale or Yorkshire Bank business customer, please contact your Relationship Manager to find out if you are eligible to take part in a future Greenhouse Programme workshop.

Supporting your growth

Whether you’re scaling up, starting up, or anything in between, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank has a range of products and services* to help your business.

To find out more about what we can offer you, visit: https://secure.cbonline.co.uk/business/

^{*All lending subject to status and eligibility. Security may be required.}